When Mercy meets Percy
by killgore444
Summary: This is what happens when there is an accident while shadow traveling. Worlds will collide. I got this idea when reading another story about shadow travel mistakes.
1. Prologue

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story. My writing can't compare to Mss. Briggs or Mr. Riordan's.

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Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

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Also, I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

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I'm in the process of updating the early chapters, correcting spelling, typos, etc. I'm leaving all my comments relatively intact, even the ones that are no longer applicable, that way the reviews make sense.

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Speaking of reviews, since no one here is getting paid to right these stories, it helps keep everyone motivated to receive reviews. If you like a story, and you want to see it continue, saying something to the author is a good way to go about it.

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**Prologue**

**PERCY**

I sighed. I was standing in front of a mirror trying to get comfortable in a new suit, twisting my tie back and forth trying to make it look like I wore stuff like this normally. It wasn't working.

Oh well, hopefully Rachel had told her parents enough about the camp, without revealing it's secrets, that they wouldn't be surprised at none of them being comfortable in dress up clothes. I wanted to say Rachel was going to owe us for this, but simply put, the camp owed her. A LOT.

Still, going to a major ball her parents where throwing for some charity or another, Rachel would know which one, was pushing it for a demi-god. We do have ADHD after all. Still, only a couple of us where going. Me and Annabeth of course, her parents asked for us, or me, specifically, as well as Rachel with two other quests. Nico had to go, him and Ms. O'Leary where our transportation via shadow travel across country. The last quest was chosen by lot, kind of. Chiron pulled the cabin number out of a hat, cabin 9, Hephaestus as it so happens, and they chose amongst themselves. The Aphrodite kids where pretty uptight about it because Chiron excluded them from the drawing as punishment for something their counselor had done. I wasn't really worried about that, but I'm pretty sure cabin 9 just pulled one of their younger members, Terry, from the forges and tossed her in a dress. The Hermes cabin took it on themselves to provide better clothes for Terry then the Hephaestus cabin could, mostly buy stealing the clothes from the Aphrodite cabin. For some reason, and I suspect it has to do with why the Aphrodite cabin was barred, the Hecate cabin was helping out as well.

Since so many of them felt that they owed Annabeth and me for not getting them banished after the war, I could kind of see it. But not why they were helping Terry so much. Oh well. They had fixed the pocket watch-shield that Tyson had given me, currently sitting in the same pocket with my pen sword Riptide, and given Annabeth a magic purse that would change to match any outfit and could hold an incredible amount of stuff and bring whatever she was looking for right to the top so it was easy to find. In addition to her ball cap of invisibility, she had put inside a hefty supply of emergency rations, nectar, money (of several different currencies), drachma for making Iris messages, spare clothes for all 5 of us, as well as armor and extra weapons. We've come to learn that we always need to be prepared. It also held within it a magic tool belt that the Hecate and Hephaestus kids had made together as a bribe to Terry to go in the first place (she wanted to wear it, but got shot down).

"Hey Percy." Nico called from the door, "You coming?"

"Yeh, yeh, yeh. I'm coming, hold your horses." I stepped out the door and looked around and my jaw about dropped. Nico was wearing a dark earth toned pin stripped suit, some sort of black animal hide shoes (hopefully not human, probably crocodile, if there are black crocs), had his hair slicked back and with a leather (again, hopefully croc) top hat, black leather trench coat and carrying a walking cane with a celestial bronze skull with emeralds for eyes (glowing) as the cap and black gloves hanging from his belt. Even though he is only 13, Nico is hands down, the single most scary half-blood I have ever met. Despite himself, he managed to not only make the get up look good, he made it look natural. Of course the subtle and not so subtle skull and death motif of his minimalist jewelry helped that a lot. Definitely not his normal grunge, gutter punk or goth get up. "Your dad help you with your clothes?"

"Don't remind me, I feel like the son of a mobster who's an overzealous father. He actually sent some shades who were trying to get an improved situation in the underworld to help. The suit is a genuine Armani original hand crafted by one of the original tailors just this morning. I THINK the leather is drakkon, didn't really want to ask. I notice you managed kept the sea references in your clothes to a minimum."

"That's because Annabeth and Rachel went shopping and picked mine out. They got really mad when I tried to get a pair of long swim trunks and a Hawaiian shirt. I AM going to wear the trident and sword pin my brother gave me. I really don't care how much it clashes with my suit. Quite apart from Tyson being my brother, nearly everything he makes is enchanted; I'm not turning that down. But seriously, you look good in that get up. You are going to make some girl absolutely swoon all over you." At that last part, Nico manages to give me a really weird look that I have to work to prevent myself from stepping back. Like I said, Nico is fragging scary, and I'm still working on keeping a friendship with him going. I'm still not sure if he's forgiven me for his sister's death or not, and it's not the type of thing one can just ask.

As we're walking up to the dining area, we can here yelling and screeching of the Aphrodite kids. Suddenly, their new counselor, I think her name is Drew (me and Tyson call her shrew) comes barreling up to us with a young girl in toe. "You 2 aren't going anywhere until I, we, have satisfaction. That little twerp back there," hands waving in the general direction she came from "stole items belong to Aphrodite cabin, you're not going anywhere until I get them back!" At the last part, I felt the wave of charm speak hit, and had to repress a snarl, I really dislike charm speak.

Evidently, so does Nico, as almost instantly, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees, and it got noticeably darker. When he spoke, it was with a whisper in the voice of the grave, "If you ever try and use charm speak on either of us again, no amount of blessing from your mother shall ever cover up the scars I shall create on you."

Showing much more prudence then most of us give her credit for, she gave me a brief glance with a plea for protection in it, and when all she got back was a glare and a snarl, she fled. I turned to Nico after she was gone, "Dude, serious overkill."

As the temperature and light returned to normal Nico just shrugged, "She's been irritating to me. I've been waiting for a chance to do that all week long. I've actually been practicing it."

"If you think she's irritating to you, try living in the same cabin with her." The girl said with a huff, "In all honesty, I gave Terry those clothes. I was hoping she'd say something to get her in trouble with mom as she's the one who told me to help Terry out." Suddenly the little girl looked at me with pleading in her eyes, "Please, please, if you get another quest, take someone from our cabin so she can challenge Drew for leadership. PLEASSSEEEE!"

"Huh, tell you what, I'll mention it to Chiron and Rachel, let's see if there's some sort of quest or something coming up, ok?" At that, she hugged me and started skipping away.

"What in all the gods was that about?"

"Evidently, her brothers and sisters don't like her any more than we do. I'll admit to being curious about why Aphrodite would tell one of her kids to help out Terry." Nico smirked.

"Who knows? Come on."

When we got to the pavilion, the girls and Ms. O'Leary where waiting for us and gave us the once over just as we were giving them. Annabeth looked gorgeous of course, and her clothes weren't bad either. Unlike any of the rest of us, there was no markings of cabin affiliation on her, which kind of surprised me. Rachel looked good, in a weird sort of way. She didn't have any of her normal look of rebelliousness. Just a really nice, fancy single strap dress, her hair was done up in a way that said several someone's helped her (probably a couple of nymphs), and she was wearing several necklaces which were probably quite expensive and a couple of pins just under the strap of her dress. One was the mark of Apollo as presented when one was chosen by him; the other was the symbol of the Oracle. Both looked like they'd been custom made for her. It was doubtful anyone outside of camp would recognize either one. Terry, who just turned 11 last week, was actually looking quite nice. The clothes she was wearing where rather flattering of her stereotypical Hephaestus, buff build, and the hair style and make up chosen showed off and enhanced, rather than concealed the scars on her right cheek and neck she got last month in the battle for New York. All of her plentiful (but not overdone) jewelry was undoubtedly made by her cabin mates, if not herself.

"OK everyone, ready to go?" Nico asked and then called over Ms. O'Leary, the oversized hellhound. As we all got in a circle and held hands, me and Rachel were on opposite sides of Ms. O'Leary holding her collar, "Here we go."

I've had the misfortune to shadow travel before, not fun in the best case. This was not the best case.

Something was in fact horribly wrong.

Normally, not that I've done it that often mind you, Shadow travel is just a little nauseating, but like walking. Sort of like how you feel after getting off a Tilt-O-Whirl. Not this time. We were in free fall mode. Strangely, I couldn't tell if we were falling down or up, just the sensation of falling into an endless abyss. Having seen the edge of Tartarus before, not a pleasant thought, I never want to end up there.

I could just barely hear Nico yelling for everyone to hold on tight. Looking around, I noticed everyone else had their eyes closed, even Nico and Ms. O'Leary, who was also starting to panic. Nice, our pet hellhound was panicking, not good.

As we fell, I had a rather odd sensation of briefly being in 2 places at once several times. Whenever it would happen, I'd look around and usually see a group of people who looked just like us a little bit away, but drifting farther afield. I had the strange thought that they were us, and had separated from us and become real people to live their own lives, while still being us. I noticed one group, as they were falling a little bit away, their Ms. O'Leary seemed to reach out and bite into the open air and suddenly they came to a screeching halt, in midair.

I was about to shout something out when there was a ripping sound and we came to sudden, if brief stop onto a fancy brick floor, and then promptly started to roll down stairs. When we came to rest, I could hear someone shouting Rachel's name, and her responding with the word mom, so I assumed we were in the right place. "Nico, friend, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm taking the train back to Ney York."

Nico looked at me, "Don't worry, I'll be joining you. The girls can come with us, or they can fly home. Not shadow walking for a while. At least not till I find out what that was."

"Why don't you ask your father?" Annabeth said and then added "Milord."

Looking over, Nico, Terry and me jumped up and Nico said "Father."

Hades was standing right there looking at us with a sort of frown, sort of smile on his face, "Congratulations, you have just survived a trip to the edge of the universal barrier. Actually, I think you went outside it briefly. Notice anything odd? Don't worry about the mortals; they think your pet dog knocked you down the steps."

While Nico, Terry and Annabeth were standing there gaping, Rachel was a little ways away with her fretting mother I decided to go for broke. "Actually, yes, I did notice several other groups of us. Does that make any sense?"

"Hades looked at me with a frown, "That means you've been duplicated. Hopefully, the other groups fell to other worlds were you don't normally exist. It's always a pain to remerge people after a split like that. And just to make your other uncle nice and happy, the person being remerged always gains in power somewhat. A little reward for his or her pain. Now come on, you've arrived safely, enjoy the party, I'll teach Nico how to avoid that tomorrow as well as inform your father what happened, just in case he gets a message from one of them, and we'll worry about the duplicates after that."

4


	2. An interesting breakfast

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story. My writing can't compare to Mss. Briggs or Mr. Riordan's.

**00088888000**

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

**00088888000**

Also, I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

**00088888000**

**An Interesting Breakfast**

**Mercy**

I was doing dishes. My husband and mate was on the phone with a travel agent making plans to get his ex-wife here. Long story short, she picked up a stalker, and was on the run. She figured, probably correctly, that a werewolf pack would scare him off.

Christy isn't a werewolf, neither am I for that matter, but I am a walker, which is close enough that pack magic will recognize me as part of it and accept me as Adam's mate, something, as a human, Christy could never do.

What she could do however, was disrupt pack politics. She wasn't even here yet and she was already doing that. Which is why I was having a not argument with two of the three female members of the pack, Darryl, Auriele's husband was smart enough to stay out of it. Not so much because he disagreed with his wife, but because he felt it made more sense to have Christy stay someplace everyone knew was a werewolf hangout then at their house, which they were trying to remain discreet, Auriele was after all, a high school teacher. Non-discrimination laws aside, if she was outed as a werewolf, they'd find a reason to fire her. Kind of stupid really, her school was probably the safest one in the nation. She wouldn't hesitate to rip a gunman in half.

"Auriele, Christy will be staying here. No, I do not like it, but, I'll deal with it. She'll be safer here then at your house." Not mentioning pack cohesion will be safer, nope not going to mention that. "Besides, if she does stay anywhere else, it'll be at Warren and Kyle's place." I put a little more emphasis on Kyle's name then I normally would, Auriele was one of the ones who didn't like having a gay packmate, especially not one so close in rank to her mate, "Being openly gay, there would be a blatant lack of interest on their part, plus, since Kyle is human, she'd be better able to connect with him. Also, being a divorce attorney, him and Warren have had to deal with a few more stalkers then you or Darryl. When was the last time anyone else in that pack had to deal with that?" Trying, really I'm trying not to say that Christy practically IS a stalker herself.

To my surprise, Mary Jo raised her hands at my question, "Not me personally, but one of the other firemen, she had to deal with it. I was about to ask Adam if I could deal with it when the rest of the squad took care of it for us. No, they didn't kill the guy."

Everyone was looking at Mary Jo when Adam hung up the phone; "Christy will be staying here." All the wolves looked down at that, his teenage daughter, Jesse, pouted. She was torn between a dislike for her mother, the shame that came from that dislike, and love for her as well. Adam was just telling all the other werewolves to go home when Jesse suddenly gave shriek of fear and surprise. Werewolves react fast, as a group, they are the second fastest creatures I've ever seen. Some vampires and fey are much faster, but as a group they're not much faster than humans, though admittedly it's the fast ones who rise to the top, only walkers, are, as a group, as fast or faster than werewolves.

With that in mind, it shouldn't be a surprise that there was almost instantly, a large group of wolves in the kitchen staring at what Jesse had seen. Right smack dab of the middle of the table, about a foot over it was a ghostly image. I could tell right away that I was seeing more than anyone else, they were talking about outlines and heat mirages. I'm a walker, in addition to being a tinsey bit faster than most of them, I can see ghosts, and some spirits. Evidently, whatever was going on here qualified. I could tell that Adam realized this because instead of insisting that I leave, he started asking me to describe what I saw, and boy was it a doozy.

"There is a large dog, I mean really large dog, Clydesdale horse size dog gripping in her jaws some sort of membrane in the open air right above the table, holding on to its collar is a group of kids about Jesse's age, a little younger to a little older. They are struggling to hold on, it looks like they're falling, or that they were falling and the dog managed to stop them. Wait, it looks… Uh, for a second it looked like they split, like a worm does, the new group fell away, but the original group is still there. At least I think it's the original, maybe when they split the new ones took the other groups place…." Ok, starting to babble, need to stop.

Ben looked over at Adam, "Do we help them?"

Adam looked in control, like he was just making a plan, but he's my mate, I could tell he was completely baffled. I was about to ask Ben how we might do that when I noticed that they split again. OK, even if they're ghosts, I need to do something. "Adam, I can see them better then you guys can, maybe I can help them." Not really sure why that popped into my head, but before I could backtrack, a weird idea came to me. "Here, hold my hand really tight, and no matter what, don't lose me." Adam looked at me, and I got the impression he knew what I was about to do. Which is kind of funny, because I didn't, "Everyone else, hold on to each other, like an ice rescue."

When everyone complied, still holding on to Adams hand, I climbed up onto the table and willed myself to be seen by the group. I could hear a collective gasp from the pack, but was to distracted by what I was seeing now to pay attention. I was standing on the edge of a cliff, leaning over the edge, looking at infinity. There really is no way to describe it. It was utter silence, yet roaring with the most mind boggling noise I've ever heard, I was falling down, going up, and standing motionless in midair all at the same time. It was utter darkness, except that the group was perfectly lit, and at the same time, I could see a kaleidoscope of colors and vistas to make me cry with delight, terror and horror. In short, I was on the verge of insanity, and I knew it.

The entire group except one boy had their eyes closed, wonder why, the noise was just as freaky, and he was looking at me in complete surprise, but managed to hold on tight. Right, helping them, that's why I'm here, wonder how long before I noticed that, seconds, minutes, years. Ok, probably not years, I grabbed the dog's collar and tried to pull it to me. Instead, it felt like I was falling out. I could feel the pack magic flowing through me as a constant hum, but when I started to fall thru, I felt a surge and not just from the Columbia basin pack either, but from the Marrock and through him, all the packs of North America. I also got a glimpse of his surprise at the sudden drain on his power. Ooops. Of course, If Adam hadn't done that, then I'm not sure I would have survived.

With the surge of magic, I gave a huge tug and collapsed back on to Adam, who immediately embraced me. Piled in a heap on the now collapsed table were 3 girls, one about 11 or 12, and 2 about 15 or 16, 2 boys, one about 15 or 16, and one 13 or 14, as well as a monstrously huge dog that smelled of flame, earth and death. All of the human appearing (they weren't normal humans for damn sure) were dressed up for a formal function of some sort, though they were in something of a disarray. And all of them, dog included looked very happy to be on solid ground. The dog actually bent down and appeared to kiss the ground.

We looking at the kids, when Adams phone started to ring, gee, wonder who that is?

"Hi Bran." Adam said, "I think I can explain that."

3


	3. We escape

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story, go buy the book. My writing can't compare to Mss. Briggs or Mr. Riordan's.

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

**00088888000**

Also, I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

As a side note, I hope everyone was able to figure out that Terry is an OC. I was going to use a minor character from the books, but I couldn't find one that really fit.

**00088888000**

Also note, For Percy and crew, this story takes place after the battle for New York, and before Percy disappears, obviously. I haven't decided yet if the Son of Sobek has taken place yet.

**00088888000**

**We Escape**

**Percy**

We were in trouble, lots and lots of trouble. We were falling, we were flying, we were just plain out screwed. That's when Ms. O'Leary bit into the open air and stopped us. It looked like she was chewing on some sort of sheet, but the sheet was the open air around us, or maybe it was just the darkness.

Whatever it was, it stopped us from moving, assuming we even were. I looked around and could see the others drifting around as much as they could while we were holding hands. It looked kind of like we were doing the wave parachuting or something. I looked out beyond us and could see nothing. It was complete and utter nothingness. I was reminded of a movie we watched called Serenity, in it, one of the characters mentions how a group of people went insane by going to the edge of space and another character laughs at her. At the time I had agreed with him, now. Now I'm pulling pretty hard in her favor. I'm pretty sure we're going to go insane here.

As I was having those pleasant thoughts, I noticed a new figure appear. She was semi-transparent, like a ghost and her legs faded to nonexistence below her knees and her left arm below her elbow and it looked like she was leaning out thru the sheet that Ms. O'Leary was gripping. I watched for what seemed like hours though was probably only seconds and her facial expressions would have been rather amusing under any other circumstance. She went from awe, to joy to horror and seemed to break out in tears of happiness at whatever she was looking at. I looked around again, nope, still nothingness. Maybe her divine parent gave her a gift to see stuff I couldn't, maybe she was just a loony. Either way, she was our only hope and I needed to get her attention.

I started to yell at her and suddenly she looked down at me with surprise and I saw her mouth the words "Oh, I almost forgot." Really, you almost forgot. Whatever her failings, she grabbed Ms. O'Leary by the collar and pulled. She started to slide in further when she tried, but then I could feel a surge of electricity thru us, a snapping sound, and then we were lying on top of a smashed kitchen table. Ms. O'Leary starts licking the ground, diverting our attention until it downs on me, she's kissing the ground.

We struggle to our feet and look around. We are in a large kitchen surrounded on all sides by people, mostly large buff men and 5 females, 3 of whom are also rather buff, 1 not so much, but then she looks like the one who saved us and one girl, about our age, maybe a little older if she's the national average for weight and build. Just those 4 women and 1 girl and close to 2 dozen fit looking guys. Just as I'm starting to think we've stumbled onto some sort of illegal porn set up a phone rings. The biggest dude there, who was up till then hugging our little savior answers and starts talking to someone named Bran. After a couple of seconds I hear him say he's giving the phone to his daughter so he can keep his hands free if this turns into a fight.

OK! So, not porn after all, that's good right. They're just workers our something. Meh, they look to ready for a fight for that. After a bit, I start to listen to the rather amusing description of us the girl, Jesse evidently gives Bran, and I notice that several people seem to be talking to whoevers on the phone, answering questions only they can hear.

**Mercy**

When Adam hands the phone to Jesse, I can see him tense and get ready to pounce. Jesse is of course describing the scene to Bran and I wonder exactly what he's thinking. I can hear Charles and several other wolves on Bran's end of the phone, and I can just imagine the looks of bewilderment passing between them.

"So anyway, Mercy just fades out, like some sort of ghost right, really super freaky, like scare the crap out of you type thing." I faded out?

"Then she seems to just stare off into space for over a minute, and it looks like she's crying, kind of like her Mom did when she got married right." I wasn't crying.

"Then she seems to look at the ripple in the air and then dad and everyone else here with the pack seems to strain and the next thing I know there's this group of kids, I mean like kids, several years younger than me right, like maybe 15 or 16." She's only 17.

"Though they do look pretty buff, even if they're dressed like they're about to meet the President or something. Anyhow, there's this mondo sized dog right, I mean it's huge. It's practically crawling on its belly but its back is almost to the ceiling!" She's right; that is one monstrous dog.

"Yes, sorry, I know I'm babbling, sorry, I can't help it, the dog looks like it eats souls or something. Right, sorry, the kids, um let's see. The one in front, he looks like a younger, buffer version of dad and is definitely the one in charge." Younger, buffer version of Adam, what?

"So, yeah, he's wearing this nice suit with some really tacky jewelry, mostly sea or navy type stuff. But he doesn't look scared at all, like everyone in the pack is just here for his amusement. And I'm starting to hear several of the pack talk about stupid kids and needing to learn their place like everyone's forgotten the whole hole in space thing and the fact that they have a dog that looks big enough to eat one of them like they would a rabbit." At that, I see several wolves of to the sides glance up, Jesse hit home on that one.

"Ok, sorry, standing right next to him is this girl, she's wearing this fancy dress suit but is holding a baseball cap in one hand and has the other one in a purse like she's holding a gun but doesn't want to show it until something gets worse. Like her leader, she's more amused than scared." Unless it's got an unlimited supply of bullets in the purse, a gun isn't going to cut, yet she really doesn't seem the type to underestimate people, what's she really holding?

"Behind her is another girl, maybe 11 or 12, but actually more buff then the 2 guys. Kind of like those pictures of the female body builders except that she's really young and she's got these scars on her face and neck like she's been attacked by a werewolf before, only she looks like she killed it instead." I can hear amusement at that comment; right up until the girl seems to acknowledge the statement with an affirmative, though she say's something to the effect of drakkon, or dragon, or something like that. I've never known dragons to be real, but that doesn't mean they aren't.

"On the other side of the leader is another boy, he looks scary as all hell even though he's only about 13 or 14. Seriously, I can't decide if he's a SS officer who became an undertaker, or if he's the living embodiment of death or something. Oh, and his Abraham Lincoln hat is looking at me. Kind of like in the movies and books were there's a talking hat, except it doesn't look friendly, more like it wants to eat my face off or something." I look at the hat, God, I think she's right. I take a big whiff of the group, and I immediately begin to sneeze. Magic; and lots of it. Magic seems to be oozing out of these kids. I haven't felt this much magic since I was on the Walla Walla Fae reservation, but it didn't seem like fae magic.

"Standing just behind him is another girl; she looks like she's the same age as the 1st girl, and holds herself like she's nobility or something, though honestly, she's the only one who doesn't look like a threat."

At the last point, that particular girl puts her hands to her mouth and starts to giggle. After a few seconds, she steps forward and holds out her hand, "Hi, I'm Rachel Dare."

Adam is about to take her hand when suddenly green mist shoots out her pores, a green skull replaces her face and she grows claws. Before Adam can react, the 2 boys and the older girl grab her and pull her back while she's spouting something of in another language in a very strange voice.

"I take that back!" Jesse nearly screeches, "She's even scarier than the rest!"


	4. Things get ugly

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story, go by the book. My writing can't compare to Patricia Briggs or Rick Riordan's.

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

**00088888000**

Also, I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

As a side note, I hope everyone was able to figure out that Terry is an OC. I was going to use a minor character from the books, but I couldn't find one that really fit.

**00088888000**

Also note, For Percy and crew, this story takes place after the battle for New York, and before Percy disappears, obviously. I haven't decided yet if the Son of Sobek has taken place yet.

**00088888000**

Before anyone asks, yes there is a reason I have Rachel speak the prophesy in Greek while in Mercy's point of view, I suck at rhymes. Also, I figure quite a bit of the demi-gods talking would be in Greek, and almost definitely the Oracle's.

**Things get Ugly**

**Mercy**

When the girl, Rachel goes into super freaky undead mode, several things happen at once. One, Adam takes a step back. That's something of a big deal as he's the Alpha; he can never admit fear without getting challenges. Still, he only took a partial step back, more like he was bracing for an explosion. The rest of the pack all jumped back, with the clatter of pots and pans falling and broken dishes to go along with that.

The other thing that happened is that the older kids grabbed Rachel and pulled her back. Each of the boys was holding an arm, and the girl was holding her legs and yelling at the younger girl to get a pen and paper. All this while Rachel his hissing out some sort of lyrical rhyme in a different language. A glance around at the pack, several people are mumbling, and much to my surprise, Ben holds up his finger and calls for quite. Ben is at the bottom of the pack, but lately, he hasn't been acting that way. The events of the past few years have changed him, generally for the better. Several of the middle rank wolves start to snarl at him when Adam calls for quit, he's noticed that Ben seems to be following what Rachel is saying, at least in part.

"It sounds like Greek, but it's a weird variant, like it's evolved in some isolation from the rest of Greek speakers." Ben says, "I'm having some trouble understanding it."

Bran speaks up over the phone Jesse is still holding, "That's because it's ancient Greek. It's been a long time since it was spoken like that, longer then I've been alive."

Normally I would have been intrigued by this little tidbit of info on our most fearless of leaders, but for now I wanted to know what was going on in my kitchen so I'm paying more attention to what Ben's saying. "Something about a volcano coming to collect his runaway bride and destroys the dogs who protect her, I'm not real clear on all the words, but I think she's talking about Christy." Christy's stalker is a volcano? WTF?

"Then she says something about dogs driving around, and, oh you're going to love this, a Lord of Greyness who shall lay waste to all if he isn't stopped or gets something." Oh shit, wonder what that's about? Tad, Ariana, the Silver Bourne (I thought that the Grey Lords didn't want that back), the Walking stick, crap, too little information.

"Now she's going on something about divergent worlds and how they don't exist here, blah, blah, undecipherable words, and now she's talking about them now. Something about 'The child of the sea, and bearer of the curse, shall rise and claim the throne of water, war and the world', something else I can't make out, 'and the daughter of wisdom and child of a man, born of no women shall inherit her grandfather's kingdom.' Well isn't that nice, I hope I'm getting that right. Let's see, 'Son of death and bringer of life, born from bones, wealth and soil, the Ghost King shall be the friend to farmers and his stepmother's heir.' And more incomprehensible gobbledy gook, 'Lastly the descendant of 3, but child of none, born of beauty, passion and grace, magic and mechanical. The builder, the destroyer, master of technology, and the master of all things made must chose her path wisely and risk leveling the world.' Ummm, not really sure what's going on here, but now she's saying something about a power increase and some more stuff that just doesn't sound like real Greek."

Suddenly, she just stopped talking and all the green mist got sucked back into her mouth and the skull and claws disappeared leaving the kitchen in absolute silence.

Before anyone could say anything, there was a tearing sound, and I noticed that the kids and their dog where hanging from the fabric of infinity again while still standing right in front of us. They looked at the outline in space (I realized they couldn't tell what it was), and the youngest one reached up and touched it.

Just as she was starting to touch it, the view of the kids holding on to space shifted, so she would be touching herself. I felt the immediate gathering of power, and the second group of kids where just standing there, for all of half a second. The 2 copies of the youngest girl were standing there touching their index fingers to each other when the magic took an audible to everyone else hum to it, and all the kids merged with their duplicates in an explosion of magic.

None of the wolves, or even Jesse were directly affected by the explosion, I'm more sensitive to magic then werewolves are. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. Like now, the explosion knocked me on my butt and caused a fit of sneezing. The young girl was blown across the room and slammed her back into our restaurant sized solid steel refrigerator hard enough that the hinges on the door snapped and it cracked the wall behind it. As she was flying across the room, she was accompanied by a plethora of nuts, bolts, little mechanical do-dads, a couple of knives, screwdrivers and a sword as large as she was. The sword buried itself into the wall, thru what was left of our cabinets, all the way to the hilt, something that the laws of physics say can't actually happen. One of the pack who was standing next to the fridge was hit by some random piece of shrapnel that penetrated over an inch deep into the muscle of a werewolf, that's like half a foot on a normal person. She was hit by quite a bit of her debris field, it followed her direct path, yet she seemed unhurt by either the shrapnel or her impact with the fridge, though she was dazed by whatever caused the magic surge.

At the same time that was happening, the other kids were merging with their own copies with similar, though less violent results. From the group a wave of debris flew out, thankfully, with less force, which included salt water, fish, horse hair, owl feathers, blueprints for buildings, various woven cloth doohickeys, soil, bones (including some human), at least one 8 once trade bar of gold that hit Adam (if anyone else got hit with one, they pocketed it and didn't tell anyone), rocks that looked like broken stalactites and we where to find out later, when cleaning up, several gems.

Our kitchen was totaled.

The young girl staggered back to her friends while everyone but Rachel stood back up (she was lying on the broken table top moaning). I could hear Bran on the phone asking for an explanation, even Jesse couldn't think of anything to say, when one of the pack, a werewolf named Eric Myers who was sitting a little less than half way up the hierarchy snapped. He started to shout and demand answers when Ben made a sarcastic comment, he rounded on Ben and yelled, but held back from attacking by custom of no dominance fights in front of potential enemies.

Whatever he was thinking, he did realize he needed to assert some authority or risk losing his place, so naturally, he turned on our visitors and attacked. Before Adam could shout out an order to stop, he punched their leader in the face as hard has he could. To the surprise of everyone, Eric howled out in pain gripping his fingers and the boy was unharmed, didn't even force his head to the side.

Realizing how bad he screwed up, Eric proceeded to make it worse by grabbing a chair to use as a weapon (seriously, werewolf fist doesn't work, so you use a CHAIR!?). As soon as he brandished it, the boy backhands Eric in the chest, throwing him back several feet into the door frame with much crunching of wood and some snapping of bone.

Now mind you, Eric isn't one of the major players amongst werewolves, but he's still pretty stout at about 350 to 400 pounds, solid muscle (and muscle that is pound for pound stronger than human muscle), he should not have been an easy defeat.

The kid just looked at Eric, sighed and turned to face Adam again, but several pack members were now snarling and starting to advance, so what does the kid do?

He pulls out a fricking pen and pocket watch.

Seriously, a pen, a moment later, the pen changes into a sword, the pocket watch becomes a shield, and that tacky bit of jewelry on his lapel starts shooting out salt water that surrounds him and flows over him in a spiraling double helix.

I glance at the other kids just in time to see the one girl put her cap on and disappear (no idea what she pulled from her purse), the young girl is now holding a sword and a revolver that is WAY larger than any pistol I've ever seen, and several bits of her jewelry are now moving across her combining and enlarging into a suit of armor. The undertaker wannabe is also holding a sword that is every bit as chilling in appearance has he is, plus his cane is now glowing in a vomit green colored flame and his hat is now openly revealed itself as magic by opening its mouth and showing off its fangs. Rachel was still on the ground.

Whatever else it did, everyone stopped and looked. I mean really looked at the kids. There was no denying they weren't supernatural somehow, no way anyone could believe that they were a group of helpless kids caught up in something larger than themselves, and we clearly knew nothing about them or what they were capable of.

Once again, we were at an impasse when the kid in charge stepped up, "Look, my name is Percy, I'm sorry about your friend, but I'm not going to allow any of us to be attacked, I'm just not. Can we talk about this?"


	5. truce

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story, go by the book. My writing can't compare to Patricia Briggs or Rick Riordan's.

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

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Also, I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

As a side note, I hope everyone was able to figure out that Terry is an OC. I was going to use a minor character from the books, but I couldn't find one that really fit.

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Also note, For Percy and crew, this story takes place after the battle for New York, and before Percy disappears, obviously. I haven't decided yet if the Son of Sobek has taken place yet.

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**Truce**

**Mercy**

"Look, my name is Percy, I'm sorry about your friend, but I'm not going to allow any of us to be attacked, I'm just not. Can we talk about this?"

Talk! He wants to talk about this! They've just trashed the kitchen and severely injured Eric, and they want to talk! Of course, in their defense, Eric did attack first, but he IS pack. And the whole trashing of the kitchen was only kind of their fault. Sometimes it sucks being able to see the other persons viewpoint, because I really wanted to be mad at them and they were scaring the crap out of me. Adam sensed my thoughts somehow, probably the mating bond, and placed his hand on my shoulder to calm me.

To the kids he said; "Talking is good, it prevents many things, it allows for dangerous situations to not escalate into violent confrontations for instance. But understand this Mr. Percy;" Adam added a growl to his words, "I do not in general allow for my people to be assaulted without leveling serious injury on their attacker!"

Percy didn't appear to off put by Adams words when he replied; "I understand that sentiment perfectly. This is why your man is laying on the floor now. For I will not allow any of my people to be injured either. When he appeared to be ready to assault me, I chose to allow it. The FIRST time! When he tried a second time, I insured he would never consider doing it again. Had he tried to assault one of my people, I would have ripped off one of his arms and used it as a club to beat him to death."

Everyone smells different; each species has their own underlying scent, along with each sub-species or race, but each individual within those groupings is different, sometimes widely so. Affecting your scent is a whole plethora of environmental factors ranging from your actual environment, to your occupation, to what types of medicine you take, even what type of shampoo and deodorant you normally use. Magic also has unique smells. Anyone who uses, is used by, or is simply OF magic, will smell different. At least to me, werewolves generally can't smell the magic on someone, at least not most of them. With the fey, they always have an off odor to them.

These kids had a very off odor as well, thou it was very different then what I'd get off the fey. Percy smelt of the sea. No, he smelt of the SEA. He smelt of power, salt water, fishes, strangely of horses, and he smelled of violence near habitually used. He was accepting of violence as the normal recourse to any given situation. It didn't faze him on any level and seemed to be, if not his first choice, than certainly his most commonly used choice. Though that would imply it was the other guys fault in most cases.

At this particular time, he also smelled of honesty. I think even the werewolves picked up on that. We can all generally tell when someone lies around, and almost always when they lie to us. And Percy wasn't lying. He honestly believed he would have killed Eric if he'd tried to assault one of the others. The brutality used was a little exaggerated, thankfully, but not really by that much.

_Are they that capable though?_ That thought came to me and caused me to pause. Yes, I think they are. Even if the pack beat them, they would decimate us enough for Bran to dissolve the pack, and I'm not so sure they'd lose.

Adam seemed to come to a similar conclusion; "Very well. I can, to at least some extent, agree with your actions. As much as Eric hurts right now, he will heal quickly, and he will heal completely before I allow any challenges to him." The last part was to the rest of the pack that was present. "I will promise, and enforce the promise, no attacks from me or my people if you will do the same, at least for the time being."

Percy seemed on the verge of agreement when the invisible girl, or just some random female voice from nothingness (not actually being sarcastic there, it was a possibility I considered at this point) chimed in; "What about someone who comes here that isn't one of your people, or one of your people mentioning it to someone else to attack in their stead? Will you promise to defend us in your home and territory; as well as retaliate on our behalf should we be attacked by someone merely associated with you or yours?"

Damn, she's quick on the uptake. I know Adam (and Bran) well enough to know that they weren't going to have a couple of wolves from another pack come and attack them and he probably would have even warned them of vampires, but they wouldn't have known that. That meant the girl was pretty darn smart, or had dealt with something like that in the past. Most likely both come to think of it.

Adam seemed to come to the conclusion he needed to deal with them has if we were two groups of fae trying to make peace. In other words, deal VERY delicately! "No one in my pack will do such a thing, on my word. No werewolf from another pack will do so at the behest of anyone in my pack or here, in person or on the phone will do so either. Though I do not possess the authority to speak for the Marrock, I know him well enough to know he will not send someone to do so without the consent of the local Alpha; at least as long as the Alpha is not a problem. Likewise, I will defend you for the duration of your stay here this day, but after that, either we will have to come up with further treaties, or you will face the various threats of this world on your own."

After a brief pause, Percy seemed to the conclusion that this was as good as it was going to get, at least for now. "Very well, I can accept your offer and the wording of the oath you have made. I will promise that as long as no violence is offered us, we shall engage in no violence with you or yours. While we are quests in your house, we shall defend it and the tenants and other quests as if they were our own." Percy seemed to give some sort of signal to the others, then added; "We might wish to take further conversation outside to your patio however. So far, we have avoided major structural damage to your house, however, Ms. O'Leary is starting to get antsy, and she can do a fair amount of damage without any ill intent what so ever."

I looked at the massive dog, who was starting to paw at the floor. "Um, how actually do you propose we get her outside?" At that, Percy gave a hand sign to the dog and she seemed to jump, but disappeared before she travelled more than an inch. Less than a second later, we could see her thru the shattered windows on the back patio.

Adam sent the rest of the pack outside and the girl became visible once again. Somehow, she'd dawned a breastplate decorated with the Empire State Building backlit by the sun and surrounded by storms and monsters, and acquired a shield with a mirror, perfectly polished, for a face, as well as a short sword of some sort, she didn't have on a helmet, but I could see her hat in her hand. "You know, everyone in there except Jesse could smell exactly where you were." I felt Adam jerk just slightly and I realized that, no, they couldn't. I was smelling the magic of her, the owls, storm and cloth of her magic, not her.

Fortunately, she didn't seem to notice Adams jerk (I'm pretty sure Percy did). "I kind of thought it might be a possibility the way you guys were all responding to whoever was on the phone, that you have enhanced senses. But just because you can smell or hear my location, doesn't mean you know were my sword arm is."

Damn, she's pretty good.


	6. Intermission

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story, go by the book. My writing can't compare to Patricia Briggs or Rick Riordan's.

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Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

**00088888000**

Also, I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

As a side note, I hope everyone was able to figure out that Terry is an OC. I was going to use a minor character from the books, but I couldn't find one that really fit.

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Also note, For Percy and crew, this story takes place after the battle for New York, and before Percy disappears, obviously. I haven't decided yet if the Son of Sobek has taken place yet.

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**Intermission**

**Percy**

Things have gone from bad, to way worse than should be possible. When the Oracle overtakes Rachel, just has she's about to shake hands with Mr. Freaky Big and Muscular with the 'I'm going to rip your throat out with my teeth' look to his face, I thought we'd die right there. I quickly grab Rachel and pull her back, along with Nico and Annabeth. She starts spouting out a prophecy, which is rather disturbing. I'm a little distracted by the unusually violent nature of the Oracles take over, so I don't get everything, but I do distinctly hear her say that we need to stop a volcano who is trying to reclaim his runaway bride, something about me inheriting the 'Thrones of Water, War and the World', something about some grey dude who's going to kill everyone in town if we don't give him something or put a stop to him, something about Terry needing to decide to risk destroying the planet to save the human race. She also mentions this tinsey little matter of us being on another world. Oh, it's called Earth, even has the same human governments and languages, but our parents aren't real here, at least not in any sense we would understand, and evidently, everyone in the world knows that there are supernatural creatures living among them.

Oh yeh, she also mentions something about us increasing our power right before the oracle disappears.

Gee, isn't the Oracle a swell lady?

About the time I'm thinking we've avoided the worst of it, I hear a sound and look up. There is an outline of us hanging in midair. I'm just staring at it, us, when Terry touches the outline. The next thing I know, I'm looking at a mirror, and then I'm seeing me from the point of view of the mirror and then I'm in an incredible amount of pain. It's not anywhere close to the worst pain I've ever felt, it's more like pressure. I've actually used my powers to feel what happens inside a tea kettle before. It was a lot like that, except it was pure power, kind of. The closest analogy I can come up with is when someone hacks into a computer game to make his character better. It was like the other me reached into ME and turned the knob on my abilities all the way up. It hurt, and I needed to release the pressure. Nor, evidently was I alone in this.

The mess we made of the kitchen we were in was pretty bad, I'll admit, but I was a little preoccupied by my various abilities trying to vie for my attention. Yes, you heard me; my abilities were competing to get my attention. I'm not sure if they somehow gained intelligence and became separate (though thankfully temporary) entities, or if it was just the way I was coping with the incredible surge of power. Did it really make a difference? After all, if I just thought they gained intelligence, did my power surge make it real?

In any case, the two abilities that gained my attention the most was the 'Curse of Achilles' and the whole thing with horses. My father created horses and all horse like creatures, except evidently Centaurs. For some reason that popped into my head when I suddenly realized I'd never see Blackjack the Pegasus again.

The curse grabbed most of my attention however. I could feel it crawl around me and tighten its grip on me. At once gaining in strength, and trying to overcome its weakness. It was trying to force me to lash out at everyone present and destroy them. Kind of like how someone feels in the presence of Ares, except it was in me. I was trying to get control of this aspect of my powers when I realized that even though the power increase couldn't overcome my weak spot, I could move the spot around my body. I had about a second or two to enjoy this thought when I realized that someone was attacking me. Immediately the curse wanted me to lash out and destroy him, but I didn't want to risk a fight. Even if they couldn't hurt me, my friends weren't so lucky.

I quickly moved my weak spot from my face, which is harder than it sounds. It's like not thinking about horse apples when someone tells you not to. I thought the guy was about to hit me in the face, so the weak spot moves to my face. Thought; reaction. Simple, if somewhat inconvenient at the moment. I do succeed however. The blow is quite powerful, but he ends up crying in pain. When he grabs a chair, I decide to end the fight before it can go further. My intention was to just knock him down, but between the Curse of Achilles and an unexpected increase in strength, I do more damage than expected.

I turn to their leader, to say something, I'm not even sure what I intended to say, but I'm thinking about the strength, and I realize something for the first time. I had supernatural levels of strength in the first place. It makes sense; after all, half-bloods have successfully fought gods and titans after all. It stands to reason that would only be possible if we were stronger then we looked. For some reason, I always thought it was just the training and exercise we did at camp.

In any case, whatever I was going to say is abandoned when I notice everyone about to surge forward. Somewhat anticipating a fight, I pull out my sword; Riptide and my stopwatch shield. The not so tacky pin my brother gave me starts encircling me in sea water, refreshing me (it would have been healing me as well if I'd been injured). My friends gird themselves for battle as well, and the line of potential enemies stalls. I'm not really sure what they're thinking, but I'm left with the impression they were expecting us to be unarmed.

I'm still not sure we want a fight, so I try a little tack. "Look, my name is Percy, I'm sorry about your friend, but I'm not going to allow any of us to be attacked, I'm just not. Can we talk about this?" Ok, maybe not so tactful.

Their big leader dude replies; "Talking is good, it prevents many things, it allows for dangerous situations to not escalate into violent confrontations for instance. But understand this Mr. Percy;" he says adding an increasing growl to his words as they go, "I do not in general allow for my people to be assaulted without leveling serious injury on their attacker!"

In Goode High, there is an elective course on comparative religion. I don't take the course mind you, but several people I'm on friendly terms with do. I remember one time; one of them is talking about the Christian Bible and asks if I've ever noticed that there is only one entity in the entire Bible, who never lies? I can't say I have, for some reason, Mom never thought modern religions were all that important, can't imagine why. In any case, I actually got interested when he said it was the devil, better known as the 'Prince of Lies'. He went on to say that the best lie was one were every word spoken was the truth.

With that thought in mind, and a sudden realization that they could detect lies (my curse was kicking in here, if I was going to try and gain victory by talking, it would help defend me from blunders the way it helped me with my footing in battle), I tried to tell the truth in such a way as to seem more powerful than I felt.

"I understand that sentiment perfectly" I said, and I meant it to. "This is why your man is laying on the floor now. For I will not allow any of my people to be injured either." Both statements true enough, I didn't think he'd allow me to murder one of his people without a fight, so I made sure not to kill him, but I was also telling the truth when I said I would not allow them to injure my friends too. "When he appeared to be ready to assault me, I chose to allow it. The FIRST time! When he tried a second time, I insured he would never consider doing it again." Again, both statements technically true, though there was a little justification after the fact. "Had he tried to assault one of my people, I would have ripped off one of his arms and used it as a club to beat him to death." This one was simply an exaggeration. I really didn't expect them to allow me to do it, but with the curse trying to force my hand, I might very well have tried.

I can see the lady who saved us give a little gasp. She doesn't look like she's that fragile and naive, so maybe she just believed me out right.

I can tell that they're mulling things over, when we start to catch a break. He offers us a truce. I was about to take it. I really needed to get a handle on this new, more powerful curse, when Annabeth chimes in. I'm mad, but she makes some good points.

He responds with a better, if more complicated (therefore likelier to be broken) deal and I accept, mostly to just ease immediate tensions. Everyone is looking for a fight, and I seem to be the only one trying to prevent one. No, that's not really accurate; their leader seems concerned enough with for his people that he's trying to back away without appearing weak.

That, more than anything, is what makes me decide to trust him. Even though he's obviously some sort of monster, he's concerned with his underlings and wants to protect them. Besides, if everyone on this world knows about the monsters, and isn't exterminating them, maybe the monsters of this world are different.

I decide to hear them out and give them a chance.


	7. Spirits Run high

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story, go buy the book. My writing can't compare to Patricia Briggs or Rick Riordan's.

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

Also, I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

**00088888000**

I also found the story I got the idea for the Shadow Travel mistake from; Shadow-Worlds by Musafreen. A really good story, to bad he's pretty much dropped it. I figure since we're all playing around with other people's ideas anyway, as long as I didn't copy exactly, it wouldn't be a big deal. But still, check his story out; it's well worth the read. Maybe we can convince him to restart it?

**00088888000**

A few notes on my reviews and some messages; Thank you for your kind words. I'd been about to give up trying to write again when I actually got a good review. So thank you.

When Mercy say's that Percy "smelled of violence near habitually used", she actually smells the magic of the 'Curse of Achilles' but if you actually pause and think about it, half-bloods really do live a violent life, Percy more so than most.

I know the purse is similar to the one used in Harry Potter, but I honestly didn't even think of that series when I made it. After all, purses and bags (and boxes, drawers, saddlebags, ships, trailers, buildings and campers) of holding more than they should are quite common in stories with magic made real. They are also canon in both series as well. I actually thought of the idea of giving her one when I was reading the description of the Hephaestus Cabin in the Lost Olympian when trying to find a suitable minor character. In it, the book mentions the interior being bigger, and hidden magic spaces behind the beds. When I mentioned the Son of Sobek, I thought about something from the Kane series, and for some reason, something from a comic book as a direction I might want to take the magic purse. Not sure if I will, just some ideas percolating in the back of my mind.

As for the 'Son of Sobek', I have decided that this story takes place beforehand simply because I can't see Percy and crew, much less Rachel, risking the lives of Rachel's parents if they thought they couldn't kill monsters. I've come up with another idea of how to introduce magicians if necessary. Having said that, when Carter says that Percy looks 17 or so, that's a guess, he really doesn't know. One of the things I've been trying to do with the overabundance of descriptions is to show how wrong some impressions can be. Personally, I've always felt that 'Son of Sobek' takes place in the narrow window of the half-bloods figuring out that the monsters aren't dying like they should and him disappearing before 'The Lost Olympian.'

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If I've done it right, there should be a picture on my profile of the gun I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

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**Spirits Run high**

**Mercy**

Adam sent Paul (his forth) and Mary Jo to bring Eric Meyers down to the holding cell so he could heal safely, both to keep him confined if he lost control, and to keep some of the more ambitious of the lower ranks from trying to take advantage of him. Werewolves have a lot going for them, but they've also got more than a few downsides as well.

As we're walking out, Jack comes rushing back in; "Um, sir, we have a problem outside. There's, um, there's a naked lady made out of water running around trying to kill a baby horse with wings! Sir!"

Ok, my ability to deal with weird is somewhat higher than most werewolves, but I'm seriously about at the end of my rope here. Percy mumbles a curse, and rushes outside; we're not a foot behind him. We get out to the back patio and sure enough, there is a foal, with bluish grey hair and white markings like clouds and wings of the same coloration, running around trying to evade a lady made of water (or as Jesse tells Bran; naked water lady and baby chicken horse) and a bunch of werewolves that it probably thinks are trying to eat it, but are most likely trying to save it. Since Honey is in the group, that's almost guaranteed, she's something of a horse lover. Her dead mate, Peter was a Calvary officer back when horses were the only option for travel other than walking, boats or possibly trains, not sure if trains were invented before or after Peter was born, I never thought to ask him.

The young girl steps up to the railing, aims her monstrous pistol at naked water lady and fires. The flash actually has a blast wave to it. The concussion from the flash lifts dust and debris off the railing and topples a potted plant off more than three feet away. The projectile hits naked water lady and blows apart her chest causing her to stumble and pause before reforming, and blowing up a large fountain of dirt downrange.

Everyone is staring at the girl, whom I'm starting to think of as Tiny Terror, when she quite calmly, but loudly explains; "The first round was a bog standard 50 caliber rifle round with a tungsten core and tip. The next round I fire will be made of Celestial Bronze. Anything not strictly mortal will be blown apart into dust and glitter."

Naked water lady, in a humph, starts walking away when Percy yells "RED LIGHT!" causing her to stop mid step and fall to her face.

Do water elemental beings play red light green light? Who knew?

As she gets to her feet, Percy say's; "Come here!" while pointing at the ground in front of the patio. The foal meanwhile has run up the steps to the patio and is jumping around and touching Percy in a manner that is every bit the same as a stressed werewolf who needs reassurance from their alpha. Percy is undoubtedly alpha material, but do horses have alphas? His magic does smell of horses, and it almost seems like the baby horse (pegasus) is speaking to him. Maybe there is herd magic like pack magic.

Naked water lady slinks up to the edge of the patio, keeping her head down and glancing at Percy in the same way that martial arts students will bow their heads to an instructor who smacks them whenever they take their eyes off someone who might be a threat. Percy has assumed a pose that is designed to intimidate whoever is being looked at, and has his head cocked back a little so he is literally looking down his nose at her (or as Jesse puts it; "looking like my dad when staring at someone in that pack that's been Really dumb").

When he speaks, it is with barely controlled violence, and I can smell the magic of water and violence on him become immediately more powerful. He is barely holding his temper. "What in the name of Poseidon do you think you are doing?!" Poseidon?

She starts to answer, pauses to rethink what she was about to say, and then replies with a slight quiver; "That, that creature was created using power and material stolen from me. I want it back."

"Explain; who you are, and how that came to be."

"I, I'm Columbia. I am the river that flows just beyond where we stand. Several minutes ago, powerful magic was released here and swept out over me, merging with me and creating this thing, I want my power back! These things around you keep stealing from me." She's looking at Adam and me with loathing. Ok, ignoring the whole 'I'm a river' thing and her apparent hatred of us, that probably wasn't the best way to put things. I can hear Charles on the other end of the phone whistle in surprise. Charles, super scary, uber powerful and mega mysterious Charles is surprised. CRAP!

"The power you felt was released by me by mistake. I did not intend for it to happen. However, that power was still mine, not yours. To say you want it back, is to say you wish to steal what is mine. As for the theft of water from a river by living creatures, that is the course of the will of the gods. As long as the river can continue to flow, you have no cause to be upset." So, Percy isn't one of the 'we most get back to nature' people. Admittedly, I'd like to clean up the river a bit, but I'm not so sure this is a good time to mention this.

"No milord," did she just say milord? "Those two have taken from me before. They have killed, with intent, the creatures I had chosen to protect and warn me. They interrupted the pattern of sacrifice the magic otters had established, and then murdered them, and their friend who was their protector."

"The River-Devil!" I shout, "You are mad because we killed the damn river-devil and the otterkin? How dare you?!" I'm about to continue, but I'll admit, I'm damn near incoherent with rage, and the rest of the pack isn't much better at this point.

Adam puts his hand on my shoulder to calm me again, and turns to Percy; "The otterkin were a type of fae that lived just down this river a ways. They were a vicious and murderous bunch, but thankfully, low powered. However, a while ago they stumbled on an ancient creature from Native lore that was unable to be permanently killed, so the Guardian Spirits of the native tribes tricked it into a slumber it was unable to escape from. Until, that is, the otterkin found and released it. They killed dozens of people, including many children, and the beasts' intentions were to eat the entire world. With the help of some medicine men and the old native spirits, we were able to defeat them." Adam is being very diplomatic here, and not just to give us the moral high ground. I'm pretty sure he's come to the conclusion that these kids; and Percy especially, need to be treated like a Grey Lord. He's also noticed, I think, that Percy is holding an impromptu court, meaning the river spirit here considers Percy boss. I've never heard of that before, but then I've never actually met a spirit like this before.

"Is this true? Do you truly mourn for those creatures? One of whom sounds like one of the Titans of old. Do you wish for a return to the chaos and destruction of their rule? Do you truly feel it is your right to steal power from others? These claims laid against you are serious, and demand answers."  
Naked water lady is at this point flipping between fear and anger. "Yes it is true; I'm tired of the mortals. I want them all dead. Suffocated in my embrace so that they may know the proper fear of my power!" Anger evidently won out, she really should have held her tongue.

With a snarl, Percy leaps over the railing and cuts naked water lady in half with his sword. She bursts into a spray of water and glitter with a scream of pain and terror leaving behind a swirling pattern of water magic visible to all. Percy takes a moment to visibly take control of himself and sighs. He glances at the river and frowns and holds his left hand up; "Come!"

A second later, another water girl steps out of the river. Much smaller and more solid appearing, it's taken the form of a young girl, around 7 or 8 wearing one of those frilly bathing suits I've always thought were designed to keep young girls from actually being able to swim. She walks up to Percy with her, its, head down, "Milord, what happened to my sister?" Ok, it's a her.

"I destroyed her for her crimes."

"Good! She was mean." No solidarity in spirit families here huh.

"She claimed the name of Columbia. She is no more, but the Columbia most continue to flow." I looked out to the river and realized that the water was starting to recede from the banks and lower in depth. "Would you take upon yourself the mantle of River Columbia? To hold true to your course and flow ever downstream?"

"Yes, milord, I do. Thank you!" With that, she grabs the swirling magic and merges with it, then runs back to the river before Percy can change his mind. When he doesn't call her back, she starts to skip the last 50 feet or so.

There is a stunned silence for several seconds that is suddenly cast aside when Miss Invisibility Cap starts yelling at Percy in Greek. I look at the other 3 and they're just standing there watching with various smirks on their faces. I look at Ben and he comes over and offers up the gist of what is being said. "Evidently, he shouldn't have been able to do that. She's mad as hell about something, but I can't really understand that bit, but I gather that she thinks someone more powerful might take insult, now he's replying that their parents don't exist here and there is no way he should have had the power to create a pegasus from the water in the first place. That seems to have shut her up but I got to say, I agree with that bit. "

At that, the two of them turn back to us. Percy looks down at the foal, "I'm going to name you Riverwind. Do you like that name?" The baby pegasus whinnies a conformation at him and he escorts it over to Honey, maybe he can tell a horse lover when he sees one. Honey then escorts it out into the field to eat and sends another wolf of to get some apples and carrots while Ms. O'Leary romps over and lies down beside it. We walk over to him; "Sorry about that," he says, "but the release of power wasn't, evidently, confined to your kitchen. We may have to go out and correct a few things in town later."

Adam looks at him; "I'll have the rest of my people keep a look out for odd things. May I ask what that was actually about?"

"In all honesty sir, I'm not entirely sure. I was acting on instinct there. But evidently, I just killed a river god and chose a replacement."

None of us, including the other kids, really know how to respond to that. As we are standing there trying to think of a reply, I hear three cars pulling up to the house. We're out in the field behind and off to the side, so we can see them come up the driveway at a pretty good clip. One of the cars is driven by Warren, of course he felt the power drain from my adventure into the abyss. He's got a lady in the front seat and Kyle, his mate with a couple of kids in the back. He jumps out of the car and Kyle quickly climbs into the driver's seat and prepares to haul ass if it looks like a violent situation. I should be furious at Warren for bringing Kyle and his client and her children into a werewolf battle, but I know he wasn't really thinking clearly, and in any case, it pales in comparison to the other 2 cars. In one, with a temporary flashy red light on top, like in detectives use on TV, is Tony, surprise, surprise, a local police detective. I found out later he had approached Sam when his mate, Ariana, had picked him up from a shift at the hospital. When the power drain hit the Marrock, his son Samuel had felt it as well. And they all came running straight here, not thinking a wit about their passengers. Tony had figured out that Sam thought there was serious trouble here, and tagged along to provide a police cover for all the run red lights. Thankfully, he didn't call for back up, that would have been bad.

Several of the pack wave to them, so the two of them can pause and think. About that time, Ms. O'Leary stands up and gives a bark of challenge at the newcomers. I hear one of the little kids shout out something about Clifford, but I'm looking at Ariana.

Her eyes turn a flat silver color and their car starts to shake.

"OH SHIT!"


	8. A Break

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story, go buy the book. My writing can't compare to Patricia Briggs or Rick Riordan's.

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

Also, I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

**00088888000**

I also found the story I got the idea for the Shadow Travel mistake from; s/9380435/1/Shadow-Worlds by Musafreen.

A really good story, to bad he's pretty much dropped it. I figure since we're all playing around with other people's ideas anyway, as long as I didn't copy exactly, it wouldn't be a big deal. But still, check his story out; it's well worth the read. Maybe we can convince him to restart it?

**00088888000**

I tried to make it appear on my page, but I couldn't, so I made it the cover photo for the story. It's a picture of the gun I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

**00088888000**

**A Break**

**Unknown**

_The bodies are lying all around her, and she is covered in their gore. _

_ She shifts from the half wolf form she didn't even know she could go to an hour ago with a smile on her face and laughter in her belly. The change is so much simpler and quicker with less pain then before. Maybe it's because she's finally thrown off the yoke of male dominion. Yes, that must be it. It was always the men. They always have to make things difficult. To dominate and control, to upset the natural order of women being in charge. But no more, these men are dead, and no man shall ever order her around again. _

_ She walks, naked, with blades of surgical steel sliding back into her fingers, over to one of the corpses, picking up its severed head; "Hello my alpha, my ruler, how are you this fine morning? Not well you say; why is that? Have I managed to burst free of your control? Are you really so unable to imagine a woman living free? All I wanted was to be able to be a lone wolf. To choose where I would live from week to week and hunt my own prey from the herds around us. But no, you had to be a male, to whine and moan like the weak pathetic things you are. 'We can't hunt the humans, they would destroy us.' Peht. A pox on all humans. They are cowards and even their women are weak." _

_ Tossing the head to the side, she glances at the other two female werewolves. They are standing, naked and humbled before her. They once lorded it over her, based, not on their own merits, but on who their mates were. But still, they are women, and are vastly more worthy then their former mates ever were. She looks at them; their pack bonds are tied to her now, tighter than any of the bonds that once held them. She's become better at understanding webs and patterns now that she's free. She tightens the web of energy that binds them even tighter, they are crying for their mates. That will not do at all, no it won't. As the binding tightens, the women relax, seeing the rightness of her cause and accepting her as their alpha. _

_ Everything is so much better since her dream of the robot spider, yes. NO! No that was just a dream. She did this; this was her victory, not some dream. _

_ She glances over at the last woman here. She is incased in a cocoon of metal and plastic wiring. Like the web her dream spider would make. This woman had claimed to be her friend. It claimed to want to help her, to help her overcome her hatred of men and her desire to simply kill people. It was no woman really. At least the other two would argue with their mates, and even if they weren't serious, they'd laughingly threaten to kill them. But this thing in the web, no, it would never do that. It loved the old alpha, wanted to please him in any way. It kept trying to get her to relax and give in, to be the alphas slave. As a female, it was more worthy then a male, but it wasn't a woman. No, all it was good for was to serve as an incubator for her eggs. _

_ Turning to the other two; "Place the sack within the van. The old alpha managed to get a danger sign to the alpha of alphas, the Marrock, before he severed the connection. We must leave before they send an army of men to do what a single woman could, but an army they will send. We must leave." _

_ The severing of the connection to the Marrock was both good and bad for her. It would have given him more information on her, but there was a chance she could have used the connection to bind all the werewolves to her. The males had prevented her from ever being able to understand the pack bonds, but she had no doubt she would have done better than them, after all, there is no way that something as powerful and elegant as the pack bonds was created by anything other than a woman._

_ But that wasn't to be. She would move her new pack to a place owned by some contacts of hers. Human women who understood the proper order of nature. From there, what? What was her final goal? She would need to deal with the other werewolves of course, but she didn't know where the Marrock actually lived. That was information only the alpha and his second would know. She knew that he would present no real difficulty, after all, he was just a male, but tracking him down would be a pain. But even that really wasn't an end goal. That was just a diversion. _

_ A thought occurred to her, she would awaken Gaia, Mother Earth, the true god of all creation. Gaia would give her the power to wipe men off the face of the Earth. No men, a perfect society. _

_ Something in her stirred, tried to get her to consider other plans, that she didn't know enough about Gaia, that it required males to breed, to try and connect with more dream spiders. That was ridicules. The dream spider wasn't real, and the idea she didn't understand Mother Earth, that was absurd. Every true woman understood Mother Earth, and there was magic and science that could overcome the need for sperm in breeding. Sex was to important and beautiful to be shared with a male anyway._

_ No, she would figure out a way to reach out to Gaia, to show her that not all women had abandoned their duties to protect her from the males of the world. She would awaken Gaia and destroy society._

_ In the background, she could feel the computer as it started to run web searches on Gaia, trying to figure out what Gaia was, and what the probable outcome would be. She didn't understand why that would be, she already knew, but something prodded her to not worry about it, and really, why should she? She was practically a god herself now; she had nothing to worry about._

**Percy**

For some reason, everyone is starting to panic. I'm not really sure why, but evidently, the lady in the car is afraid of dogs, and really powerful. This day sucks!

I shout for Ms. O'Leary to run away, but she just kind of looks at me. Evidently, Riverwind catches the gist of what's going on, and proceeds to 'attack' Ms. O'Leary. He jumps up and down, kicking and threatening her in a way that is absolutely hilarious. It truly reminds me of a kitten attacking a Great Dane, only I'm pretty sure both are aware it's a joke.

Ms. O'Leary figures out what's going on, and with much whining and tail tucked, runs away. Anyone who's listening can hear laughter in her whines as she does. I've never really been able to figure out how intelligent she really is. Every time I start to think of her as just a smart animal, she does something that makes me think she's as smart as us. When I start to think that, she does something most dogs aren't dumb enough to do. I'm starting to think she just likes screwing with people.

Riverwind is ecstatic over his success, and is putting on a display, which would be a lot more impressive if his wings had adult feathers instead of down. On him, it reminds me of a 5 year old strutting after winning a T-ball game. In any case, he starts prancing over to the cars. I can just barely hear the children shouting, but the important thing is the other car has stopped shaking and the scary lady has calmed down and is watching Riverwind's display with amusement on her face.

I start to walk over with Annabeth at my side. Thankfully, Rachel holds back Nico and Terry. If she was scared of Ms. O'Leary, she'd be petrified of Nico. I notice that the only two from the house that comes over with us is the daughter, Jesse, and the lady who saved us, all the really buff, threatening people stay behind. We walk over to Riverwind and I start to calm him, the kids have, by this point exited the car and are petting him. I'm trying to listen to the ladies, but it's hard with Riverwind's chatter, but has, as a base, the idea that the guy who brought scary lady here is a stupid moron who isn't capable of stopping to think.

At this point, Annabeth notices that someone has driven a van over to the house and suggests that since the horse loving lady (monster) mentioned something about stables, that someone stick Riverwind into the van and bring him there. After thinking about it, the horse loving lady, named Honey, agrees. After a little negotiation, it's decided that one man, named Kyle (a normal human who's dating a male werewolf), will drive the van with the 2 kids and their mother along with Jesse with honey in the back, away from scary lady. Evidently, Kyle is a divorce attorney, and him and Warren are protecting them from her soon to be ex. It's decided that scary lady is more than enough to protect them and Jesse.

As they're leaving, the lady from the kitchen tells them to swing by her garage and tell someone named Tad to open without her.

Yay, crisis averted.

**Mercy**

Yay, Crisis is averted.

Sometimes I wish I had the powers of a werewolf (ok, all the time), I just don't want the disadvantages. But the stamina thing would be good right now, as I've now had five different times today were I've nearly had a heart attack. This day really sucks.

We all walk back to the patio as Adam is sending most of the wolves back to their homes. They're not really going to do as much good against these kids as they'd normally be in a fight, and their presence seems to be actively making the situation worse. As we sit, Adam introduces us formally. Present is Adam and myself, Daryl and Auriele, Warren, Sam, Tony, his partner Detective Molly Ringwall (she asks for no comments on her name), Ben (his continued presence caused a stir amongst the wolves of higher rank then him, but he's the only one who speaks Greek), as well as Paul and Mary Jo as soon as they come up from the basement.

The kids don't seem to like the presence of police, but they do seem intrigued by werewolves living openly amongst humans.

We also discover; all the kids except Rachel have ADHD, and Dyslexia. Oh joy, supernatural powerhouses with the attention span of a mayfly and a learning disability. Fate is such a wonderful being.

"My name is Perseus Jackson, please call me Percy." He still smells of the SEA the way he did before, but the smell of violence has receded. He's also in a much improved mood now that Adam has sent most of the pack home.

Next, invisible hat girl introduces herself; "I'm Annabeth Chase Jackson, wife of Percy for just over 3 weeks." When she first started the bit about being his wife, she was hesitant, like she wasn't sure she was telling the truth or not, but became positive by the end. They didn't look old enough to be married, but that doesn't mean much amongst supernaturals. Her magic smelled of owls, battle, cloth and weaving, carbon paper, electricity, storms and the open air.

Tiny Terror pipes up; "I thought that was just an excuse to throw a party. I didn't know it was real."

"Chiron is the only authority that matters for us in this regard, we're of age in our tradition, and my mother sent Percy an owl with some seaweed as a peace offering, and his dad sent me a pendent with a trident carried by an owl, so they accept it. We were planning on a more official ceremony for our other parents later, but that looks like it's never going to happen now."

I notice that Tony and Molly doesn't seem to thrilled with the whole 'only authority that matters' comment, but Tony at least seems to let it lie.

"Anyway, my name is Terry Yutu, nice to meet'cha." I about choke coughing. It dawns on me that I just made the same mistake that so many people make about me, I thought she was Hispanic. Her magic smells of grease and metal, sweat and the forge, but also of perfume and flowers with a dose of something I can't quite identify until I realize, it's power, undefined magic. Like a witch, only more powerful.

"I'm sorry" I say, "but I didn't realize you were a native at first. I really like your name. Coyote out hunting has a nice ring to it."

She manages to give me a dirty look. "My tribe is America and Olympus, the natives that you speak of would not accept me or my father for what we were. They were to racist to accept a half breed like my father, I rather doubt they'll accept a quarter breed like myself. They chose to ignore us; I have no problem ignoring them." I notice that the rest of the kids are looking at her in wonder, maybe they didn't know she was an Indian either. I also know how she feels.

"I'm Nico di Angelo." Nico said with no fanfare and little emotion. He was the scariest, his magic smelled of death, pure and simple. Except it wasn't, not really. In addition to death, he smelled of soil, rock, darkness, wealth, and oddly, of flowers and spring. I also got a better look at his suit. Adam has taught me the value of a good suit. Though Nico didn't seem to be that comfortable in it, he had a REALLY nice suit. If it wasn't for all the death symbolism, I'd have been more impressed then scared. Then again, maybe that was the point.

"I've already introduced myself, but for the new people, I'm Rachel Dare. And considering what happened last time, I'll forgo the offer of a hand shake. And yay; today is my 16th birthday."


	9. A Story

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story, go buy the book. My writing can't compare to Patricia Briggs or Rick Riordan's.

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

Also, I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

**00088888000**

I also found the story I got the idea for the Shadow Travel mistake from; s/9380435/1/Shadow-Worlds by Musafreen.

A really good story, to bad he's pretty much dropped it. I figure since we're all playing around with other people's ideas anyway, as long as I didn't copy exactly, it wouldn't be a big deal. But still, check his story out; it's well worth the read. Maybe we can convince him to restart it?

**00088888000**

I tried to make it appear on my page, but I couldn't, so I made it the cover photo for the story. It's a picture of the gun I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

**00088888000**

**A Story**

**Mercy**

"I've already introduced myself, but for the new people, I'm Rachel Dare. And considering what happened last time, I'll forgo the offer of a hand shake. And yay; today is my 16th birthday." Her magic smells weird. Ancient, yet futuristic (and I never realized that the future had its own smell). I get the impression of sand, copper, snakes, more sand, crocodiles (?), dates, olives and caves, plus, a little bit of a similar power to Terry's undefined power (ok, more than a little, quite a bit more), yet subtly different.

I also notice her eyes are the same color as the apparition that took her over, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't the color when she first held out her hand to shake. In werewolves, eye color changes mean something, so I'm going to assume it means something for her as well.

On hearing that it's her birthday, the 2 boys jerk, evidently, they didn't know, and Annabeth and Terry aren't going to let them off the hook for it either, being ADHD, it's even worse than is normal for teasing. During the exchange, we learn that Rachel's parents are loaded. Loaded in a way that people would have thought of the Carnegies' a century before. When her mother asked what she wanted for her birthday, Rachel replied 'A million dollar donation to the Ronald McDonald House.' No, as rich as they are, Rachel knew that they didn't have that kind of cash lying around, evidently, her relationship with her parents is somewhat strained and she was being sarcastic. Her mother surprised her though, she decided to hold a charity ball to raise money for the foundation. That's how come she was actually dressed up and looking nice, evidently, she takes after Jesse, and why the boys just thought they were going to a charity ball.

Adam starts to give Tony, Molly, Sam and Warren a highly edited version of what happened this morning. He trusts everyone but Molly to some extent, and I also notice that Sam is now holding Adams phone with Bran on the other end. He's still on the line, just not saying anything. I can hear over the line what sounds suspiciously like a crowd and I wonder just how many people are listening in.

Adam gives a surprisingly detailed account of the episodes in the kitchen, it's the events outside that he edits the most, especially the bit about Percy CREATING a living thing. Something tells me, that wouldn't go over well at all. For that, he tells them that he is watching the pegasus for a friend, and that he is not at liberty to discuss either it, or the friend. As for naked water lady, he explains that it was a remaining creature from the River-devil episode on our honeymoon, something that is partially truthful, and something that the police and federal agencies are already familiar with.

Up till this point, everything is going pretty good. All of us with enhanced smell, and Rachel as noticed that Detective Ringwall doesn't seem to like us in any way, but she's remaining silent up until in a fit of ADHD inspired boredom, Terry takes out (summons actually, were does she keep that thing) her massive pistol and starts to clean it on the table.

Det. Ringwall grabs her gun and yells; "Hands Up! Don't Move!"

We're all sitting there looking at her when Percy asks; "What is your Problem?!" Quicker then I've seen anyone move before, he's out of his chair and standing in front of her, between her and Terry. "You already knew she had the gun, she'd already had the gun laying on the table and partial disassembled when you drew your gun. So I'll ask again, what in the name of Hades is your Problem?!" By this point, he's leaning over her, forcing her to bend over backwards, with her gun to his chest. "You've sat there this entire discussion, making faces of disgust and dislike. You've clearly got an ax to grind here, so what is it?!" Tony's got his hand on his gun (undrawn at this point) and Adam, Daryl and warren are standing up, ready to pounce. The other kids are watching with amused disinterest, Terry just reassembles her gun, but leaves it out. "If you want us gone so bad, why don't you shoot? Go on, do it, I dare you." With that, he grabs her hand and places the barrel in his mouth, "Do it" (it actually sounds like 'Eww Iee'".

When she doesn't move, he slaps her hand and the gun discharges in his mouth with a loud bang. Tony pulls his gun out and aims at her yelling for her to drop her weapon with Percy standing there with smoke coming out his mouth.

It's at that point that we all realize that Percy is still standing there, with a grin on his face. As soon as everyone is looking at him, he calmly spits the bullet out. "You can't hurt me." He says, and I'm not the only one to take note that he's actually lying about that. "There are only two things that can hurt me, that wasn't one of them. And no, I'm not going to tell you what they are either." He sits back down, spitting out the rest of whatever comes out the end of a barrel when a gun is fired, "The chances that any of us," waving his hands to include all the kids except Rachel, "will live to see our twentieth birthday are less than one and five hundred. So we're not inclined to play by your rules, abide by your taboos, or worry about your desire to control things. If you've got a problem with that, if you've really got that much of a problem with people that are supernatural, I'd suggest transferring to a different department, such as, I don't know, Meter Maid."

Molly is, by this point, shaken up pretty bad, and Tony is still pointing his weapon at her, though the tension has drained from him to be replaced with resignation. She fired her weapon at an unarmed civilian. Specifically, she fired it into his mouth. Even though he lived, even though he caused it really, there's a good chance she's not going to be employed with the police soon.

Terry decides to enter the conversation at this point; "Do you really want this gun so much? I'll tell you what, using this gun, and a single bullet." She removes all the shells except one, and I notice that one of the places to hold a bullet is covered over, "We'll play a game of Russian Roulette. You win, you can keep the gun, I win," shrug, "well, let's just say your partner going to be coming up with a story for your superior." With that, she spins the cylinder, waits for it to stop, points it at her head, and then fires.

The sound of the hammer striking home is, at that moment, almost as loud as Molly's shot had been. We're all staring at her aghast when she calmly puts the gun on the table. "Your Turn! Just pick it up, give it a spin, and take your chances!"

Surprisingly, Molly edges over to the table looking at the gun. It's actually a very beautiful piece of artwork, but it's also clearly a functional piece of art as well. As big as it is, it's clearly not big enough to hold the rounds sitting on the table next to it, three 50 caliber shells, each looks like artwork as well, and I can smell magic on them. I guess she left the tungsten core one in the chamber.

As she starts to pick it up, Tony starts to warn her not to, but Terry pipes up; "Be careful, it's heavier than it looks, and I put a hair trigger on it without putting a safety on."

Molly looks at Terry; "You don't have a safety?"

Terry points at her eye; "This is My Safety! It's called target identification! Something you've shown a noticeable lack of ability at! It'd be unfortunate if you shot your partner there by mistake."

Now Tony is looking at Terry coldly, but Molly just collapses back into her chair and seems on the verge of tears. "How can you do that? How can you have so little regard for your own life and the lives of others? Why play these games?" she seems ready to continue, but is overcome by a fit.

Terry replies; "We play games, because we're bored. It's a release of energy. For the most part, we work out, practice weapons drill and make stuff. But games are important form of stress release. What Percy said is correct, only one in five hundred of us survive to twenty. My father was one of the few, he was a member of the cabin that adopted me when I went to camp, and he married my mother at 16 who was the daughter of people from two other cabins. Only dad survived past twenty, making it to twenty two, my mom died right after giving birth to me at seventeen. She'd been held by a cyclops so he could eat me after I was born the way some rich people like veal. A friend of my Dad was able to overcome it, and rescue me and my Dad, but my Mom died. My grandparents on my mother's side died at seventeen and nineteen. We're not really given to worrying about long term plans, or were our lives will lead us, we already know. We Die!"

"The first time I killed anything," she says, "was about a year ago, before the battle of New York." Battle of New York? I notice that I'm not the only one who perks up at that.

"I got a quest. At the time, all the more experienced people had more important things going on getting ready for the war. I was to go back to the orphanage that I stayed in before coming full time to camp. The three of us, Jacob eleven, Megan also eleven and me, I was ten at the time were to rescue another half-blood that had wound up there and stop whatever monster was threatening her. Turned out it was a minotaur and some other things that looked like anthropomorphic otters." I shuddered, I've developed a dislike for otters since my honeymoon.

"We, meaning I, decided to go ahead, after all, Percy managed to kill a minotaur when he was eleven without any training or weapons and on his own. I figured how hard could it be? I grossly underestimated them. It turns out that they'd charm spoken all the kids. Jacob was cut down by the knife wielding kids. He didn't even have a weapon that would harm a mortal, only a celestial bronze sword, passed right through the kids, and they tore him apart. Some of them even began to consume his flesh. Megan does better, she's using a whiffle ball bat and bean bags from a game to knock the kids unconscious, and I'm concentrating on the otters and the minotaur." I'm completely engrossed by her story at this point, this girl has never been a child, and shall never manage to live that scene down. That fight had become her defining life experience, and she'd been ten years old.

"How much do you know about minotaurs? They're creatures of lust. Born through a rape and bestiality, they are consumed with lust and violence and must rape and murder to retain their existence. What it was doing in the orphanage was nearly beyond my ability to comprehend. But it was also gathering funds for its side in the war. Up until then, I'd actually been kind of ambivalent about the Titans, couldn't be any worse then what we had right? I learned right there, I had been wrong about that. They were taping things, even their murders and selling them for funding." My blood is cold at this point, I can see the looks of shock on everyone else's faces, even the kids, so she'd never shared this particular story with anyone before.

"When Megan gets killed by one of the otters, I know I'm about doomed. The only thing I can think of is to trick it into playing Russian Roulette. I'm pretty sure I'm about to lose, but it's thinking along the same lines, so I'm able to get it to parley. I manage to convince him to settle this with a game, and to swear on the river Styx for it and the otters to abide by the terms of the game. Luckily, the half-blood we came to rescue isn't included in any promises I make, and she gets a hold of Megan's bow, and being a child of the sun like her, starts to pick off the otters from behind while I'm setting up the game. She does it smoothly too, like that movie about the Russian sniper in WW2, 'Enemy at the Gates' she targets the ones in the rear, were none of the others can see what's going on. I get the minotaur to the table, remove one of the bullets from the gun I was using at the time, I only had two left, leaving the celestial bronze one in the chamber. We go several rounds before he starts to realize he's pushing his luck, and that's when he loses. As his head disintegrates, his body quickly becomes dust, and the two remaining otters turn to flee, but Meredith takes them out. The charm on the mortals fades at that point and the kids forget what happened in the mist. We call the cops, give them a bullshit story and they quickly discover the recordings and close the place down, sending everyone to different orphanages throughout the area. I manage to get Meredith out in the confusion, and everyone lives happily ever after. Yip, Yip yahoo." Something tells me, there's no such thing as happily ever after for her here.

"So, Every gun I make now, has some features built in from lessons that I learned that day. One; endless ammo; one of the chambers is sealed off, it's called the duplication chamber. It duplicates the other ammo over and over again, endlessly, though shells duplicated only last about a minute, so I can't supply a force with it, but it makes forensics a hassle as there's never bullets afterwards." Maybe she shouldn't have told the police that bit.

"Two; fully automatic, even though it's a revolver." With that, she walks over to the railing, points the gun slightly down so it hits about two hundred feet away, and lets loose with a long sustained burst, making it clear that it's fully automatic, and has the endless supply of bullets she mentioned. Oh yeh, she really shouldn't have told the cops about this gun. Of course, it also makes it clear how strong she is as her hand doesn't jump around at all, but remains stable and steady as she fires, one handed. Clearly supernatural levels of strength is on open display.

"Three; it can not only be hidden by the mist," it fades from her hand at that point, "but it always comes back to me, like Percy's sword." Ok, she's telling the cops this as a threat. Or a warning. She's saying leave us the hell alone, or I'll kill you. And she's not really being all that subtle about it either. The question is, did they get the message she intended, or something else, like maybe she's just a little off because of her trauma.

"Fourth; the duplication chamber is ALWAYS the chamber that is set to the barrel to fire, that way, all I need to do is think about which chamber I want duplicated, and it'll have that one ready to go." That's way better than the computer controlled guns from movies.

"And fifth and finally, I ALWAYS leave one chamber open. That way, all I have to do is think of the empty chamber when I fire, and nothing is duplicated. So unless you know that trick, eventually, whoever I'm playing against will think about the chamber that has a bullet." DAMN!

We're all looking at her in silence when suddenly my cell phone starts to play 'Sting Little Cobra', Tad's calling.

"Hey Mercy, I just spoke to Jesse and Ariana, they said you wanted me to open the garage today. It's Sunday, we're never open Sunday, did I miss something?"

CRAP!


	10. The Coming Circus

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story, go buy the book. My writing can't compare to Patricia Briggs or Rick Riordan's.

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

**00088888000**

I also found the story I got the idea for the Shadow Travel mistake from;

s/9380435/1/Shadow-Worlds by Musafreen.

A really good story, to bad he's pretty much dropped it. I figure since we're all playing around with other people's ideas anyway, as long as I didn't copy exactly, it wouldn't be a big deal. But still, check his story out; it's well worth the read. Maybe we can convince him to restart it?

**00088888000**

The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

**00088888000**

The Ronald McDonald House Foundation is a real thing. They establish places for the families of children in long term care facilities to stay so they can be near their children, and the children can have someone from their family nearby. For instance; if a young child has leukemia, and the family lives a hundred miles from the nearest treatment center, The Ronald McDonald House would allow for some of her family to stay at low, or no charge, rather than forcing the parents to pay for a hotel room in addition to the hospital bills, or stay home and only visit once per week.

I strongly encourage everyone to give to this organization whenever you have some extra cash. Donation is easy, every McDonalds has a donation box near one of their registers. Please give generously; being alone while in the hospital sucks for an adult, for children, it's much worse.

**00088888000**

If anyone would like to do the story of Terry's first quest, or her parents, give it a whirl. Her father was a Miwok Indian, son of Hephaestus, his last name, Yutu, means 'Coyote out Hunting.' Her mother was the daughter of two different half-bloods, one the son of Aphrodite, the other the daughter of Hecate. Let me know if you're going to try, but bear in mind, the story I established for Terry pushes on some subjects that can easily offend, please tread carefully, and tactfully. Also, in both cases it'd be strictly PJaO, no crossovers.

I'm also still working out how I'm going to work children of two half-bloods. They'd still be half-bloods, but it'd be half-human, quarter one god and quarter another god. I've got a basic idea, but it hasn't played out completely in my mind yet.

**00088888000**

**The Coming Circus**

**Mercy**

CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP! "Oh my God, I'm sorry Tad. It's been such a screwed up morning I completely spaced what day it was. Crap, I missed church as well." I'm thinking that this next coming week is going to require more than a little help from on high to get through it as well.

"Oh, that's ok," Tad says, "I figured out you were having an interesting day when I saw the video on the internet of you with the baby pegasus. Did you know that your house is on a tour bus route?" WHAT?!

"The famous, or infamous depending on who you ask, Adam Hauptman's house is something of a local landmark." Tad adds, "but I must say, I'm not sure I'd pay money to drive by it slow enough to take videos. I'm sending you the link to the one I'm watching. It went up fifteen minutes ago, and already has over two thousand hits."

Dead silence reigns after that. No one here, or at Bran's, is making a sound. I get the link and download the video. Sure enough, it's taken from the back of a bus with a tour guide giving a spiel about Adam, and some of the things the public knows about him. When suddenly a child shouts out and starts pointing to the field next to the house, and sure enough, there's Riverwind, dancing away. The bus slows some more, and several people call for it to stop, but the guide states its company policy not to stop at the homes on the tour, and adds that it's generally a bad idea to invade a werewolf's property.

I'm utterly and completely flabbergasted. How did we miss this? Who and the hell gave them permission to run tour buses to our home? Do they follow us now as well? Are we going to get fanboy stalkers as well? WHAT THE HELL?

OMG! Are they doing tours past my Garage? What kind of person would take a tour like that. I'm starting to have a panic attack when Adam puts his hand on me to calm me. _We'll deal with this._

Now everyone is talking and offering suggestions when Tad tells us to be prepared, several news agencies have been pegged watching the video, so we can expect news vans to arrive soon as well. Warren goes off to call Kyle, the video shows him and his client and her children, so it might come up in court. Tony gets a call from his superior, and generally things turn chaotic pretty quick.

At this point, I hear the stomachs on the kids start to growl, and I realize it's been several hours since breakfast, and the kids hadn't eaten before their ordeal to begin with. I ask Tad to swing by the pizza place and pick up the order I'm about to place, along with an attempt to make a coded request for him to come and check out the kids and see if they're fae or something as obviously, Ariana is out for that duty.

Adam notices what I'm doing, and orders Paul, Mary Jo, Daryl and Auriele to leave, as they aren't actually publicly outed as werewolves. Sam, as the official, on record doctor for the pack can stay without anyone getting suspicious, so that leaves four healthy, and one healing (Eric) werewolves, two normal humans, me, and the five kids, four of whom have ADHD and clearly very active life styles, and in any case are all either teens or one preteen. Let's see, twenty five large meat lovers' pizzas should do it. Oh, and swing by the store and pick up several LARGE bags of dog food.

At some point, Sam lends Adam his phone to call his man Jim Gutstein. He has him call all the news organizations and arrange a deal. One camera crew and a single reporter will be allowed into his home the next day for an interview. The crew must share it with every single news agency that DOESN'T show up at his property. They may not allow any footage taken to get into the hands of any agency that does show up, or any agency that regularly deals with independents that do, neatly cutting off the worst of the coming circus. Paparazzi are really not that much of a problem. The aura of really dominant werewolves like Adam will, in general, cause normal people to obey them, or at the very least, scare them away. That and most reporters and photographers have got the standard safety briefing on dealing with a werewolf.

Meanwhile, Tony explains what he can to his boss, and makes arrangements for State Patrol, County Sheriff and local Cops to heavily patrol the roads around the house and arrest trespassers. Luckily, the main road out front has only a small shoulder, and is a POSTED emergency stopping only area, with the penalties for stopping helpfully posted on said signs. Something tells me, there were a few donations to local politicians that went into those signs. None of our neighbors would allow people to loiter about, and the biggest adjoining property was my own old trailer and yard. Since Gabe was away at collage, I gave the Sheriff permission to park there, as long as he kept us informed of which agencies were there, and in the case of federal agencies, the names of the agents and to not allow sound enhancing equipment to be set up. He got a strange tone to his voice when Adam said that, but he's a smart man, he understands that not everyone in the government wants to allow werewolves their freedom. And he's one of those cops who is all about doing what's Right, not really what's legal. Him and Tony get along fine when they talk.

The chaos continues for the next hour. From out of her purse, Annabeth has pulled normal clothes for the kids and they go change. How did she fit that much clothes in her purse, the damn thing looks barely big enough for a tampon, much less five full sets of clothes. Sam is amused by that, and tells me that a long time ago, some REALLY powerful witches could make devises like that, and there are several prominent stories of the fae that have similar things. Even Adam mentions the trailer he borrowed from Uncle Mike for our honeymoon, and how much bigger on the inside it seemed. Maybe it wasn't just the ILLUSION of good engineering. Besides, Terry's gun shows that the kids have the ability to alter spatial dimensions.

The kids come back out, all of them except Nico are wearing jeans and orange t-shirts that say 'Camp Half-Blood' on them, but some of the jewelry is still being worn. In the case of Percy and Terry, the jewelry is magical, so I'm guessing the same could be said for the other kids as well. Nico is dressed all in black, his top hat has become a black baseball cap and his shirt has a quip about getting a sword and killing people with kindness. It'd actually be funny on anyone else, but on him, I wonder if he really did name his sword kindness. I think he senses the gist of what I'm thinking, and he smirks. The kids start to help clean up the kitchen, and Warren notices something we forgot, and quickly moves to keep Tony and Molly out.

Oh yeh, the human bones littering the kitchen. You see, that's how bad this day has been, we're unable to remember something as major as human bones littering our kitchen before we invite cops over.

When Tad shows up with the pizzas, we all start to dig in, and Sam brings several downstairs to Eric. The kids eat with the typical abandon shown by most teenagers, or more like the gusto shown by teenagers who are Olympic level athletes (except Rachel, she's much more sedate).

When Molly and Tony start to wave off the food, Annabeth makes the comment that they might as well eat for free, after all, if we cost her her job, she might not have enough money for food later. Not sure if she meant that to be funny or not, but Tony is clearly taking a dislike to the kids. Whatever the case, they decide to eat. Maybe Molly thought it was actually good advice?

At some point, Terry goes in and comes back out with a sword. I look at her funny until remember the sword that buried itself into our wall earlier.


	11. Λύκος

This chapter contains spoilers for Night Broken, the 8th book in the Mercy Thompson series. If you like the series, but haven't read it yet, don't read this story, go buy the book. My writing can't compare to Patricia Briggs or Rick Riordan's.

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

**00088888000**

I also found the story I got the idea for the Shadow Travel mistake from;

s/9380435/1/Shadow-Worlds by Musafreen.

A really good story, to bad he's pretty much dropped it. I figure since we're all playing around with other people's ideas anyway, as long as I didn't copy exactly, it wouldn't be a big deal. But still, check his story out; it's well worth the read. Maybe we can convince him to restart it?

**00088888000**

The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

**00088888000**

The Ronald McDonald House Foundation is a real thing. They establish places for the families of children in long term care facilities to stay so they can be near their children, and the children can have someone from their family nearby. For instance; if a young child has leukemia, and the family lives a hundred miles from the nearest treatment center, The Ronald McDonald House would allow for some of her family to stay at low, or no charge, rather than forcing the parents to pay for a hotel room in addition to the hospital bills, or stay home and only visit once per week.

I strongly encourage everyone to give to this organization whenever you have some extra cash. Donation is easy, every McDonalds has a donation box near one of their registers. Please give generously; being alone while in the hospital sucks for an adult, for children, it's much worse.

**00088888000**

If anyone would like to do the story of Terry's first quest, or her parents, give it a whirl. Her father was a Miwok Indian, son of Hephaestus, his last name, Yutu, means 'Coyote out Hunting.' Her mother was the daughter of two different half-bloods, one the son of Aphrodite, the other the daughter of Hecate. Let me know if you're going to try, but bear in mind, the story I established for Terry pushes on some subjects that can easily offend, please tread carefully, and tactfully. Also, in both cases it'd be strictly PJaO, no crossovers.

I'm also still working out how I'm going to work children of two half-bloods. They'd still be half-bloods, but it'd be half-human, quarter one god and quarter another god. I've got a basic idea, but it hasn't played out completely in my mind yet.

**00088888000**

I can't believe it, but I must now admit some mistakes. One, evidently, I've been misspelling Fae. I was rereading the story and I noticed several times the word Fey instead of Fae. I'm sure it's a minor thing, after all, I've noticed enough errors to make me regret putting this story up, and showing the world how much I suck at my native language (can instead of cane, combing instead of combining, etc), but this one was a continuing error that I didn't notice. Evidently, my word program has Fey as a word, but not Fae, error now corrected.

The other major error I noticed was one of reference. I mentioned looking in the book, 'The Last Olympian' for a description of the Hephaestus cabin, it was actually 'The Lost Hero.' Sorry people, I'll try and do better. I know there have been a ton of errors throughout this story, but those were the two that are the worst IMHO.

**00088888000**

**Λύκος**

**Mercy**

We're all eating the pizza with Terry examining the sword. It's shaped vaguely like an oversized machete, but the blade is double edged and it looks like one of those diamond coated frying pans. It's also got some elaborate engravings and embossments made from some unusual metals. Tad is sitting next to her, admiring the blade, "An interesting weapon, do you know what it is?" I can see a frown crease his face, it's like he isn't sure what he's seeing, but he should be.

"Diamond coated Boron Carbide blade with engravings and embossments made of Celestial bronze, Stygian iron, True gold and Odblethium marble, fascinating" she says to herself.

Nico leans over, "Is True gold the same as Imperial Gold, and what's Odblethium?"

"How would you know about Imperial Gold? It's been over a century since we called it that" she says giving him a weird look. "The last reference we have to Imperial gold is before the Civil War; and even those are strictly cabin secret tomes, its name was changed afterwards."

Annabeth leans over next, "Odblethium is a naturally magical type of marble used in the construction of really important temples, statues and of course, the homes of the gods. I've never heard of it being used in a weapon before, it's nearly impossible to give it an edge. And other than weight and near indestructability, it's not got much in the way of magic. Now granted, those would be fine traits in a sword, but it doesn't grant the abilities, just has them, that particular embossment would be indestructible, nothing else. I'm surprised that there isn't Blessed silver in it instead."

"Well," Terry begins, "there is some deep magic in the symbols on the engravings, and the embossments all have the shape of what you'd make to share properties, so maybe it was designed to make a blade that had all the traits of the individual metals. And just so you know Annabeth, you can't add Blessed silver to Stygian iron without some severe problems, catastrophic problems. Hmmm, it looks almost like the symbols are…"

"Are what?" I ask when the other kids just seem to wait for her to continue.

"Hey Nico, come here, I need you to give me a hand, the blade needs to be quenched."

Nico pauses in his step as he was getting up to go over and just looks at her (as does Tad). "Oh don't be such a baby, I'm not going to kill you, I just need you to give me a hand." Somewhat hesitantly now, Nico continues over. When he gets there, Terry grabs hold of his left hand and, it comes off. Nico holds up the (only slightly) bloody stump of his left arm with a perplexed frown on his face and both Annabeth and Percy start shouting at her while Tad jumps back several feet.

I glance at everyone else, pizza half way in their mouths, expressions rather similar to Nico's. Tad looked like he was about to faint. Whatever else they are, these kids sure the hell aren't boring.

Meanwhile, Terry just looks at everyone, "What? I'll give it back. I just need to borrow it." With that, she starts to rub the bloody end over the blade, smearing the blade with Nico's blood. Holding it up, we can all hear a slight hum start to emit from the blade before dying off into silence. She then holds Nico's left stump up and reattaches the hand. Evidently, her magic is capable of that feat, because Nico immediately starts to wiggle his fingers. "Why does my hand tingle, did you do that right?"

"I drained it of blood Nico, it's like when you sleep wrong and your arm falls asleep from lack of circulation, you just have to wait for new blood to flow in."

"How; and why did you do that?" Tony snarls through gritted teeth, clearly at the edge of patience.

"Oh, my cousin Lue Elan does that all the time. She keeps taking peoples noses to play 'Got your nose,' like when you were a kid, except she's really got your nose. Normally, there isn't any blood, but I needed someone's 'Death Blood' to quench the blade. Since Nico is a child of death, I could use his without killing him. And in any case, this will greatly affect how the magic of the blade settles. Nico is, how did Rachel put it, 'A Child of Death, and a Bringer of Life.' Plus, it was blood freely given, and with no life being taken, this will result in a very different blade then if you walked up to some enemy and ran it through his chest. And hey, you never know if that whole 'Farmers Friend' thing will have an effect on it or not. Well, maybe you will know."

"By the way," she said handing the blade to Adam. "This belongs to you. Its name, written on the blade, is **λύκος,** Wolf in Greek."

Adam takes hold of the blade and I can feel magic stir. Adams eyes change to a bright yellow as his wolf stirs beneath his skin. After a brief stare down (can you have a stare down with an inanimate object), he holds up his arm to his mouth and rips off a junk of flesh and places it on the edge of the blade. "See me with your power, look at me with no offence taken or meant **λύκος." ** I could feel the magic swirl about, and then reply wordlessly. "Will you join with us, to hunt, to fight, to live and run?"

Again, the magic seemed to reply, and Warren spoke, with awe in his voice, "We claim you."

"We Claim you" I echoed, the words of the ritual coming easily to my throat.

"I CLAIM you" said Adam "Alpha's flesh and blood shall you be. From this day forward. Mine to mine! PACK!" Again, the sword gave a wordless reply, and the junk of flesh seemed to be absorbed into the blade and then, through the pack bounds, a sizzling wave of magic flowed, and the entire pack became aware of its newest member. The blade, glowed with a silvery light like the glow of the Moon and the howl of a distant wolf, before fading in both light and sound. As we watched the light go dim, the blade became smaller and changed shape, till it was nothing other than a charm bracelet shaped like a sleeping wolf around Adams wrist.

We're trying to settle the pack bounds when Sam comes rushing back out, Medea, my cat, clenching firmly into the flesh of his arms with her claws to remain stable. "What just happened?"

Sam isn't part of the pack, but he is one of three werewolves in North America who is more dominant then Adam, this, combined with being in our house causes Adam to snarl at Sam. Before things can escalate, Tad steps into the conversation; "Adam has added a new pack member, a sword."

Sam just looks at Tad like he's grown a horn, but he can tell that he isn't being lied to.

I look up at Sam, "And everyone thought he was crazy when he let me into the pack, now we've got a sword as a pack member."

Adam laughs, "It's a very intelligent sword, and it likes us."

At this, Terry pops out with "It's got some really useful abilities, but you do need to be a little careful with weapons like this, the magic never quite remains static."

Adam laughs again, "Maybe it should have been named Walker, or Mercy."

"I'm not sure about that," she said. "But obviously, it can change shape as well as you can, and it will transport itself to you, or anyone it's linked to now, when you need it, or whoever in your pack needs it most. I've never dealt with pack magic before, werewolves from our world are a lot different than here. Between the various materials, if I read it correctly, you'll be able to use it on just about anyone or anything, from normal humans, to werewolves, to undead and even steel bulkheads and walls without hindrance or issue. And it'll result in their destruction if they're normally immune to mortal weapons. No, it won't work on Percy, or anyone else with his curse either, that's something special there, but if you've got a monster that just can't be killed normally, or if you just want to cut open a tank, this'll do the trick."

"Will it work on Vampires?" Adam asks with a thoughtful look.

"VAMPIRES!?" Nico blurts out, "You've got Vampires?"

"They're not all bad," Warren cuts in, "one or two are actually nice, well, one at least."

"Fairs fair" Nico says, "Why don't you tell me, us, about the ones who aren't?"


	12. We Finally Talk

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

**00088888000**

The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

**00088888000**

The Ronald McDonald House Foundation is a real thing. They establish places for the families of children in long term care facilities to stay so they can be near their children, and the children can have someone from their family nearby. For instance; if a young child has leukemia, and the family lives a hundred miles from the nearest treatment center, The Ronald McDonald House would allow for some of her family to stay at low, or no charge, rather than forcing the parents to pay for a hotel room in addition to the hospital bills, or stay home and only visit once per week.

I strongly encourage everyone to give to this organization whenever you have some extra cash. Donation is easy, every McDonalds has a donation box near one of their registers. Please give generously; being alone while in the hospital sucks for an adult, for children, it's much worse.

**00088888000**

If anyone would like to do the story of Terry's first quest, or her parents, give it a whirl. Her father was a Miwok Indian, son of Hephaestus, his last name, Yutu, means 'Coyote out Hunting.' Her mother was the daughter of two different half-bloods, one the son of Aphrodite, the other the daughter of Hecate. Let me know if you're going to try, but bear in mind, the story I established for Terry pushes on some subjects that can easily offend, please tread carefully, and tactfully. Also, in both cases it'd be strictly PJaO, no crossovers.

I'm also still working out how I'm going to work children of two half-bloods. They'd still be half-bloods, but it'd be half-human, quarter one god and quarter another god. I've got a basic idea, but it hasn't played out completely in my mind yet.

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**Λύκος **meaning wolf is something I got off a translation program. Not all the other programs would say the same thing, but most didn't offer a substitute either, so I went with it. If it's incorrect, sorry.

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I'm not entirely sure of the cabin numbers; I was basing them off the order of seating in the counsel of Olympus from 'The Demigod Files.'

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**We Finally Talk**

**Mercy**

"We do not need a battle with the Vampires right now." Adam says with some amusement. "Though I must admit, turning you lot out against Marsilia and her people has a certain attraction, she has far too good of a connection to the 'Lord of Night' to risk open war at this time. Besides, they won't hunt here, so close to their homes, so their presence actually makes the tri-cities safer by keeping out the supernatural riff raff. If we can manage to get through the next couple of days though, we'll talk."

"Damn, I really dislike Vampires." Nico pouted; "Everyone has this idiotic idea that they're the height of coolness or something. They're really just an aberration in the cycle of life and death. They're not SUPERNATURAL; they're UNNATURAL; zits on the face of creation that need to be popped." Eeewww, nice analogy there.

"I wouldn't say that they're that bad, except, most of them are." I have to work on my comebacks, I've gotten rusty.

Nico looks at me; "You'd be the last type of person I'd think would be friends with a vampire. Now granted, the various types of creatures from our two worlds are clearly different, but most Spirit Walkers in our world would never consider making friends with an undead."

"Well, clearly you've never met a Walker who was raised by Werewolves and had no idea what she even was until a few months ago. So there!" I said while sticking my tongue out at him, "Wait, did you say SPIRIT Walker?"

"Yessss! You're actually a type of weak half-blood, like us, but based on some of the lower ranks of the upper echelon spirits, but really powerful in certain distinct areas, varied somewhat by who you're descended from, but mostly dealing with spirits and the dead. If you want, we can talk about it later, we'd need to figure out the differences anyway."

My flabbergasted limit has officially been breached. Its bulkhead has been opened, and my mind is sinking into the sea of numbness quicker than a Wile-E Coyotes plan. I have absolutely no idea what to say at this point, when suddenly Annabeth leans over and gives me a t-shirt; "Welcome to a half-bloods life, I'd give you the spiel about camp, but that might not exist here so, the shirts the best I can do for now." It's one of her orange t-shirts.

I'm feeling a little put upon at this point when I happen to look over at Molly, "You don't seem surprised at the reality of Vampires and Walkers, why?"

"The safety briefing police get in training isn't the only source of information on the supernatural."

"Care to explain that comment?" Adam asks in a surprisingly polite voice.

"I wasn't aware I had to explain anything to you. Or do you imagine some sort of special privilege for werewolves to access whatever they want and to not be made to reveal anything at all about themselves?"

"As a matter of fact, yes I do. We're walking a fine line here in keeping our freedom and preventing a bloodbath should the government not have learned its lesson with their screw up with the Fae. It's a fight that neither side can win, and will simply result in a lot of dead bodies and the collapse of leadership for both sides. So YES, if there is another source of information on supernatural creatures, accurate or not, we DO need to control the access to it!" Adams eyes are bright yellow now; his wolf is clearly impatient right now. "Besides, if you have any desire for our assistance with getting you out of the jam you've found yourself in, you'll damn well give me anything we ask for. After all, what is the penalty for shooting an unarmed civilian in the mouth?! Percy was right, you've got an ax to grind here, and something tells me, it won't take much of an investigation to reveal it to I.A., rendering anything you say against us as bigoted, maybe even bigoted enough to commit murder, or attempt to anyway. So start coming clean, I've had to many threats that I've ignored come back and bite us in the ass lately for me to NOT deal with you one way or another!"

She's looking straight at the ground now, her survival instinct might be kicking in late, but at least it's kicking in. "My father was a werewolf. We used to live in Barstow. The old Alpha was a complete jerk. He'd made the decision; back before you outed yourselves, that every child born from a pack member had to be made a werewolf by their fourteenth birthday, no matter what. I was nine when my brother died during the process. My mom ended up committing suicide and my father was almost destroyed, I think that if he didn't have me and my baby brother Mike, he would have joined my mom. So when Carter decided to challenge for the Alpha slot, my dad was more than happy to support him, and was quite happy that the first thing he did after killing the old alpha was rescind that order."

"But the Marrock had to intervene, after all, he'd said no challenges for position, therefore, what happened couldn't be allowed. So he sent his assassin, Charles to go and kill everyone involved, including my Dad. I spent the next decade in foster care with everyone thinking I was insane for believing in werewolves when after all, it was common knowledge that all those legends had been based on the Fae."

"I'd actually come to believe it as well you know. That I was just off my rocker, insane, clinging to a childhood fantasy to explain the death of my parents. Right up until you admitted you were real. Suddenly, I remembered. I remembered what it was like, who they were, and most importantly, what happened." At that, she choked up and couldn't continue and I heard a sigh come from the other side of the phone. I didn't know if it was Charles or Bran though.

Sam broke the silence; "I remember that. The old Alphas mate called Da' and complained that the pack had turned against her mate in open revolt, risking their exposure. It's pretty rare for an entire pack to turn against the alpha, so Charles was sent to find out what happened. In general, the reputation of Charles is such that most people will turn over any wrongdoers pretty quick and things work out with as little bloodshed as is possible, but sometimes, like in cases like this, his reputation works against him. Everyone thought that Charles would kill everyone, so everyone fought him. He ended up killing over a dozen that day before anyone was even willing to talk to him. When he found out what had happened, he killed the old alpha's mate, as it was her insistence that that idiotic rule existed. He later told me that if anyone would have bothered to explain, he would have let the challenge stand. The 'No Challenge' rule still exists, but it's never been completely closed to any challenges. If there is mitigating circumstances, then Da' will allow them, sometimes even after the fact."

"Had we known earlier, Charles would have been sent to take down the Alpha instead. All it would have taken was a phone call or a letter by someone, anyone, and it would have been dealt with!" Now Sam's eyes are glowing, he's pissed and wants us to know it. It's a continuing battle for Bran and his sons to get information from the lower wolves as to the true state of the packs, rather than the glowing reports some Alphas give, or the doomsday reports others give to get more money from the Marrock (those usually don't work, he sends people like Asil to find out what the problems are). Since that entire mess could have been avoided, he's making sure that Molly understands that her father had some blame in the mess as well, even if it was understandable.

After that episode, the meal in general continues without any major hitch. Afterwards, Percy and gang give us all a highly edited version of their story, one that I'm not entirely sure was edited just for the police. Their still not sure if they can trust us or not and I'm still reeling from Nico's little revelation earlier that I'm having a hard time processing it all.

Evidently, they go to a special camp for kids like them, with what family line you're part of determining which cabin you join. Percy is cabin three, Terry (and her father) is cabin five, Annabeth is cabin six, and Nico was cabin eleven, which evidently, in addition to its own blood-line, used to host all the lower lines as well, but is now in cabin thirteen. When Ben makes a comment under his breath about unlucky numbers, Nico just makes a comment about unlucky blood.

We get a pretty basic run down of the last six years or so, skipping enough to make me wonder why they're even bothering to tell us anything, but still giving us enough information to get an idea of who these kids are, personality wise, and how we can expect them to react to things, though that has changed somewhat, as evidently they've grown in power today, and the curse that Percy suffers under has gotten stronger. It must be horrible to be completely invulnerable, just horrible. His temper issues, while admittedly bad (OK, they are horrible), aren't that much worse than a werewolf. Of course, I gather pretty quick, he's got a smidgen more power at his fingertips then most werewolves.

The curse they talk about sounds a lot like the gift Achilles got from his mother, but I don't mention it. If we can cut off his foot and kill him, we've got an advantage if he turns against us, but only if he doesn't know we know. And that makes me wonder, why didn't Achilles ware shin guards? No one ever mentions that.

The first major surprise comes from Nico, who was evidently born in 1935. This led to a short discussion on WW2 and that there was a Hitler on our world, which seemed to surprise the kids as evidently, their version of Hitler had the same dad as Nico, and that he didn't exist here.

Hmmm. Not sure what to make of that. Nico is scary as crap in the best case, finding out he's Hitler's half-brother makes it that much worse. It's a reaction he seems to have expected, even embraced to an extent. Of course we find out their version was even worse than our version, having some actual supernatural power gave their version more motivation, and ended up killing about three times as many people. Nice!

Of course this leads to a discussion on the whole age twenty thing, but we find out from them, and their not lying at all here, that the years didn't actually pass for Nico, as he was somewhere that time wouldn't affect. And that wouldn't allow him to age or grow in body or mind, so he's still only thirteen.

Nico's revelation does cause us to start looking up their names on computer databases, and there are actually versions of them, though they have different parents and backgrounds. This worlds version of Percy for instance, was (he died in a drunk driving accident with his mom because of his stepfather Gabe) the son of Sally Jackson and a Sailor who died a month before they were to get married. Rachel's parents went broke in their first business venture, and she ended up getting killed in a gang fight in the ghettos of New York last year. We weren't able to find anything off Terry Yutu or Nico (but he would have been before computer records), but Annabeth is the daughter of a prominent scientist who just happens to work for Daryl's company. From that, we get access to fingerprints and discover that their prints, while similar enough to be siblings, maybe even twins, aren't the same. So there's no chance of mistaken identity from prints. And the photos are enough to show they have only a vague resemblance, I guess several years of intensive training and combat will alter someone physically.

As the conversation moves towards night we start to discuss the prophecy Rachel gave (Bran has had to change phones twice, on each end) and we decide to grill something outside. When Ben is lighting the fire, I hear a gasp from Bran and Charles over the line, and Sam from right in front of us.

"Da', was that what I thought it was?" Bran nearly hisses, but responds and starts to issue orders.

Tony, being one of the few who can't hear what's going happening on the other end asks; "What's going on?"

I reply; "We just lost a pack."

"What do you mean, you lost a pack?" He's nervous now, and even Molly looks afraid at that.

"Exactly what it sounds like Tony, someone killed an entire pack of werewolves. They were connected to the Marrock, so he and Sam and Charles felt it happen. This is not good."

Tony's reply of "SHIT!" just about sums it up. It doesn't take more than an hour before the bodies are discovered; Charles is already on his way to Atlanta GA, the home of the dead pack. Between the pegasus and dead pack, werewolves are going to be big news for a while.

When the food is done, and the news broadcasts have been reviewed enough to get what we can from them, we turn to start eating when I see the kids looking at their food, and the fire. Suddenly, Percy gets up, carries a large chunk of his steak over to the fire and starts speaking in Greek with the other kids right behind. I glance at Ben who says they're praying with a shrug. They throw the food into the fire were it is almost instantly consumed in the flames. That only happens when magic is involved.

"**PERCY!**" someone shouts' "Oh thank Olympus! Percy, and Annabeth, oh Terry, Nico, it's so good to see you guys!" The kids are completely flummoxed (and we're all standing ready to fight). There's a young girl, maybe eight or nine jumping from one to the other hugging them with another large man standing right off to the side of the grill who smells like a Fae.

Percy, who' still in shock looks at the girl; "Hestia?!"


	13. basicly plot filler

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

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The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

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**Percy**

"Hestia! What are you doing here?" Gaa, that's all I could think to say, what are you doing here, really, sheesh, the events of the day are seriously screwing with my head. I'm exhausted, stressed and have been in fight or flight mode all day. Then, out of frigging nowhere, Hestia shows up. I really hope this is a good thing.

"Oh, I'm so glad to see you all. I thought I'd never see anyone from our old world again. It's so wonderful!" She continues like this for a while. After more than a little prompting, Annabeth manages to prod her into giving her story.

"It's been about a year, I was traveling between fires, when there was a surge of fire magic from somewhere in Africa that was powerful in the extreme, next thing you know, I'm out between universes, just like it seems you guys were. I ended up here, and probably several other places as well, duplications can be interesting, but I'm the only version of me that ended up here, unlike you guys." She grins at us now, "How'd you like being remerged?"

"It wasn't that bad." Annabeth says; "I get the feeling it could have been much worse. I do wonder however, exactly what it means?"

Hestia looks at her, then at me; "I means you've been promoted. It's how the council rewards half-bloods who've earned themselves a path to the big pound. You're not anywhere near as powerful as your parents mind you, but you're at about the same level as your father's wives. It's how my brother managed to get free from our father and get the power to free us in the first place, and doing it intentionally with the help of Nico's father was how we managed to defeat them the first time, back before we had half-bloods to help us." She was looking at Nico and me when she said that, so I'm pretty sure she just said we're minor gods about the same as Amphitrite and Persephone.

"Percy and Nico already were almost that powerful, to some extent, but now, now it's official. If you ever manage to go back to our old world, be ready for a fight, my brother, your uncle, doesn't like it when you guys get jumped up in power like that without his permission."

Great, just great! What little hope I had of getting home to see mom and maybe live something vaguely resembling a normal life just went out with the tide.

"Anyway, it's so great to see you, and Nico, I'm so glad you decided to give up your quest for revenge against Percy. So, did you defeat the Titans, or is the war still ongoing?"

I guess it's up to me to answer, as everyone is looking at me; "It ended a few months ago in New York. The city was almost destroyed, but we managed to save it, and banish the Titans again. Not that it matters, according to Rachel, they, and our parents don't exist here. We were just discussing Rachel's latest prophecy when you showed up. By the way, who's your friend?" I just now noticed the big dude standing there. I'm kind of slow today.

"That's Julius; he saved my live when I showed up here. I can't consume anything not freely given, as you know, and I managed to get on the bad side of a group of vampires when I tried to save a family. They managed to kill the family, and would have conquered me I think, if Julius had not shown up and permanently destroyed them. It was fantastic. Anyway, he's a half-fae descendent of another half-blood that ended up in this world about a hundred years ago." I look at Julius; he's a large black man, about seven feet tall, and built like a weight lifter. Not those body builders who go for looks, weight lifters, like you see in the Olympics, the mortals who do the dead lifts of half a ton. And he's not a mortal. Not sure what a half fae is, but he's clearly powerful.

It's around this point that I realize we've been speaking in Greek, so I decide it's time to introduce everyone, and it dawns on me, this version of Hestia wouldn't know Rachel.

**Mercy**

The night keeps getting weirder and weirder. This little girl and rather large fae just appear out of thin air, and the girl just starts jumping around hugging the kids and jabbering away in Greek. Once again, Ben is called upon to translate until Percy seems to realize we're not all speaking the same language and introduces everyone to our new quests.

The young girl, Hestia, knew the four, but not Rachel; she seems to have arrived here before Rachel started to hang around their camp. The big man, Julius, is the great grandson of another half-blood that arrived here a century ago, and the son of a minor fae animal kin. We also learn the girl's curse; she can only eat what someone freely gives her. She can't even eat what a waitress brings her unless the waitress is just giving it to her without expectation of the food being paid for, as that's not freely given. The owner of the food (or a representative) most literally hand the food to her.

Like the other kids (or just kids, something tells me, Hestia is older than she seems), she reeks of magic. She smells like flames and food, of incense and cleaning materials, and of homes and families well-tended. I'd say she smelled like a good guy, but she also smelled of power. Power on a major level, well beyond the kids' level, beyond anything I've scented before, except maybe the River-Devil, not sure on that one. Julius, he smells like lions and glamour, and I'm pretty sure we're not seeing his true form, he doesn't speak much and gives us no information on who he is.

We manage to get back to discussing the prophecy, and if it is about Christy or not. No one is sure, they just know that there is a volcano who's trying to retrieve a runaway bride that they need to stop, and they need to help 'Dogs' while doing so. The dogs comment would seem to indicate that yes, it is Christy.

With that in mind, Adam invites the kids to stay, and Sam, much to my surprise, invites Julius and Hestia to stay at his home. Arrangements are made to get Jesse home and Adam calls Auriele to make arrangements for child welfare to come out the next morning and get the kids set for school and what not. We also realize that we need to come up with a cover story for them. Molly decides to help out, and suggests that we claim the kids were friends of Jesse from her mother's home town who found themselves in a bad situation, and appealed to her and her father for help. Auriele also says she knows a couple of half fae in child welfare, so that'll go a little easier.

We set the kids up in the two guest rooms on the second floor, one for the boys, one for the girls. Tad bids farewell, and lets me know we're going to be having a talk the next day at work. Great!

Annabeth pulls out enough supplies, pajamas and clothes for the kids for several days out of her purse, and we bid them goodnight with the sincere hope we'll get through the next day without major changes to our lives. It's OK to dream isn't it?


	14. Pillow Talk

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

00088888000

The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

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Sorry about the delays and crappy last chapter. I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days.

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OK, I admit it, I have a problem. I like actual conversations in stories. I actually want to know what is said, rather than just a summery. I'm aware that if I summarized more, I could have got to this point by chapter five. Of course, If I hadn't summarized as much as I did, I'd still be at the point of everyone looking at each other over a ruined table. I had a lot of conversation planned out in my head, but just not enough time to write it.

I also realized I needed to move the plot along, that's why the last chapter came out so weak. All the conversation I had planned I had to skip. It's also why I added the enemy in earlier than planned, I needed to show that there was something more going on than just the volcano.

So anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

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**ADAM**

It's been a LONG day. As I lie down next to my mate and contemplate it, I realize that nothing in my long life has prepared me for something like this. I can feel Λύκος on my wrist, that is something that I can't quite manage to describe. I've read enough stories about intelligent weapons to be cautious, but I also have the impression that Λύκος was somehow made by me, or for me, or most likely, by the power released by Terry mixing with the power in my lair, and of all the pack that was there at the time. She was made to defend the pack and my home, and werewolves in general.

I lay quietly for some time. Mercy is already asleep. She was asleep before she even got completely into bed. I'm worried. Whatever happened to her when she faded out while rescuing the kids seems to have had an effect on her. Something that has thrown her off all day, slowing her reactions and wearing her out. It's also made her slower thinking than normal, resulting in her missing details altogether, or just not making connections. She was starving every time we ate, so it's probably just that she used up a lot of energy. She doesn't have the endurance of a werewolf, but she's got a lot more than a human, and it's not like she's led a sedate life these last couple of years.

Something tells me, the next week or so will be anything but sedate.

The presence of the kids is stirring my wolf, making us restless and wary. I can hear the murmuring of conversation from their rooms, but when Christy had this house designed, she'd wanted privacy in her bedroom from other werewolves, and invested in strong sound absorption walls. Mercy can hear through them just fine, when she wants to, as could Warren and Ben if they concentrated, but I couldn't, at least not very well. I smiled in my thoughts, sometimes I think Mercy has no idea how good her senses actually are compared to ours. Her hearing and smell are as good in human form as a werewolf's is in wolf form. I've always wondered if that was because of the magic of being a Walker, or Spirit Walker now, or if it was that a coyotes senses are better than a wolfs, or if it's just that Mercy has better senses than other walkers, like Warren does compared to the rest of the pack. Not that it matters I suppose, she's here, and she has them, so it really doesn't matter.

I get out of bed; I'm feeling restless, and a little hungry. As I walk out of our room, I notice Nico, sitting with his stuff, in the hallway listening to the conversation going on in the room he's supposed to be in. He gives a start when he notices me, but before either of us can say anything, I hear a giggle come out of the room he and Percy were given, it was Annabeth. Great, in addition to everything else going on, I'm going to get in trouble for having underage minors cavorting in my house. Their desire doesn't bug me all that much; I come from a period where sixteen was an acceptable age of marriage, even if it was becoming rare. Several of the pack come from times where sixteen was the norm, for girls at least, guys tended to have to proof themselves or have money first. Sam came from a time where if a girl didn't already have kids by the time she was sixteen, there was something wrong with her. No, the only real issue here was worry about human authorities, some of whom desperately wanted to round up all werewolves and lock us away.

I'm contemplating if I should interrupt or not when they start to speak again. I can smell the desire radiating off Nico, and it doesn't take much of a nose to tell it's for Percy, not Annabeth who's speaking.

"So tell me oh great and powerful seaweed brain, what are you thinking about that has your brain off somewhere else instead of being entranced by my stunning looks and my magnificent owl pajamas?"

"I was thinking about the first time I met you, how you had some chocolate you missed at the corner of your mouth and how I really wanted some chocolate at the time."

I hear her thump his arm with a laugh; "Seriously, we're in an even more messed up situation than normal for us, I want to know what you consider the most pressing issue." Not exactly the type of pillow talk I would have thought would come from two teenagers.

"The most pressing issue I think; is making friends while establishing us as separate and not actually under the authority of anyone. Being minors, that's going to be more of an issue than it would if we were adults, and I'm pretty sure we're going to have to compromise on that a bit. But it's essential we retain as much independence as we can, or that we move on to where we can get it. We can't be allowed to become dominated by anyone else, no matter what."

"Hmmm, and here I was thinking about how we would defeat a walking volcano." She said, "After all, that does seem to be the monster we're supposed to defeat."

"That doesn't really worry me; we've defeated Titans before right? And yes featherbrain, I know that's getting a little over confident, but honestly, that just seems like the opening movement in a much more complicated score. It's almost like getting the Thunderbolt back, yes it was dangerous and scary for a couple of eleven and twelve year olds, but it was only the beginning to something much more dangerous. This volcano has that same feel, it's just a taste of what's to come, the test the enemy gives you to see what he needs to do to defeat you. That's why we need to maintain as much independence as possible."

"Damn, I was hoping that I was just being paranoid when I thought that. Still, I'M worried about the volcano, after all, we have no idea what it actually is. Besides that, I'm worried about us, never seeing or hearing from any of our parents again. How are we going to relate to each other and get along over the long term, what direction our powers are going to go, what affects beyond CREATING a living creature and killing a river god we had on the surrounding area, and other little things like that."

"You're not ever going to let me live that down are you? Yes, I killed a minor river god, I lost my temper, sorry! The curse has become more powerful, in both the good and bad ways, though I don't think what happens if my weak spot is hit changed, my desire to lash out and prove my superiority over everyone has been amplified. That's how come I jumped at Mr. Hauptman's offer of a truce, I needed time to get control back before I slipped into evil megalomaniac mode. As for my power going out of control, I'm waiting to see what happened with yours and Nico's powers, Terry managed to gift our host with a nice sword, what'd you create an owl statue?"

I hear another arm thump, and Percy's laugh. "As for never seeing our parents again, I figure that'll affect Rachel and me more than the rest of you, or have you finally come to terms with your father and his family?"

"Not really, sort of, it's hard to explain ok. It's just that now, I don't have the opportunity, and I never will. Suddenly, I regret being such a little bitch to them, even though I know my dad loved me. Neither of us where ever able to truly come to terms with my birth, something that isn't all that uncommon in my cabin."

"Ah yes, 'Child of man, born of no woman', your mothers gift to your dad?"

"I don't like to talk about it, the way we in my cabin are born. It's worse for those born to a woman, they have two mothers and no father, Dad could at least say an old flame left me on his door step, Bethany was born to a supermodel a month after she did a swimsuit and body paint photo shoot, try explaining that one to the media. You know, when we start having kids, I think you're going to bear some of them."

"I don't think so, though honestly, I nearly had some today besides Riverwind, when my powers where going out of control, it's, I can't even exp….."

"Shhhh. Percy, it's alright, I understand, my powers went out too. I thought each one was going to separate and become individuals separate from me. It scared me, and I just now had a thought. One of the powers I was thinking about was the whole 'Birth by Thought' ability my mom has, what if there was someone with sufficient IQ nearby? Is there someone out there with a baby growing in their head? Am I now someone's mother?!"

At that, I take out my cell phone and start sending a text to Sam, maybe he'll get wind of something like that before Cantrip does. I also notice Nico looking a little worried, maybe he's thinking what his powers did.

"Hey, hey, Featherbrain, don't worry about it until it happens OK. If it did happen, there's nothing to do for it, if it didn't, then it doesn't matter. Next time we talk to Hestia, we'll ask her if there's a way to track half-bloods by their parents or grandparents. Which that actually reminds me of a question I should have asked her, why didn't the mist protect Riverwind from being noticed? The mist still prevents our weapons from being noticed, why not Riverwind?"

"If I had to guess, and I do, I'd say it requires a conscious effort here. Everyone here believes in the supernatural, so it's not automatically hidden like in our world. Though, that IS just a guess."

"I'll take your guesses over most peoples facts any day oh beautiful daughter of wisdom. Has for how we're going to deal with each other over the long term, assuming we survive long enough for it to matter. If Hestia is right, and we're now immortal, than I suppose we'll end up acting like our parents. How's that for a pleasant thought?"

There's another arm thump. "Not funny Percy."

Percy gives a short laugh, "Yes it was, a little anyway. Besides, on some level, you know it's true. As much as I love you, you know as well as me, we're going to have fights. And, if we're immortal, those fights could very well reach epic proportions. But let's not worry about that yet ok. Now, what was your other worry, oh yeah, how our powers where going to develop over time right? Well, mine seems to have increased to being able to command river spirits and minor gods, something even my dad could never do except by basically bullying them. I've also apparently got the ability to create life, at least horse related anyway, but I imagine that I could do fish as well. Not sure about how my control of water was affected, but I can still feel all the water in the house and for several miles beyond in the back of my mind. With some concentration, I can feel all the water all the way out past Seattle and into the Pacific, and what's more, I can sense what's in the water. From the chemical composition, to the swimmers and ships. What about you?" I gape at that one, I've never heard of anyone having that much power, keeping that from Cantrip is of vital importance. If they learned there was someone that powerful, there'd be open war against the supernatural.

"You forget oh mighty master of silt, I am the daughter of wisdom, we don't get cool powers like the rest of you."

"Oh huh, sure, and I've got this really neat bridge for sale in San Francisco, you might have heard of it, it's for sale right now if you want it. Seriously Annabeth, the dumbest kid in your cabin has an IQ of over one hundred eighty, and you're not the dumb one. I've heard your cabin mates say you're smarter than all of them. That all by itself is one heck of a cool power. I've never considered myself dumb, heck, Mr. Blofiss had them give me a IQ test designed for the dyslexic at school, it said I was around one fifty, not dumb, but no were near your level, so don't sell yourself short. Besides, I can tell when you're just trying to change the subject and I know you've got the gift for weaving, you do it without thinking whenever you get really bored, you were doing it all day today, and I don't think you even once noticed."

I hadn't noticed, and I thought I was paying attention to them. "You're right Percy, I don't really want to talk about it, I was just worried about what's happening to me. I know you three are going through something similar, and something tells me, so is Rachel. Nico though, is who I'm worried the most about."

"Why, from what Rachel said, his power is going to go in a more earth oriented direction than death related. Heck, he already is the master of life and death, he's got the 'Sword of Hades' after all." I notice Nico give a start of surprise, "What, you didn't notice?" I guess Annabeth gave a start to. "You remember that episode where Thalia, Nico and me ended up in the underworld. Turns out his dad really hadn't ordered the sword made, and was really angry with his wife over it. So after New York, dad told me that his father told the rest of the council that as punishment to her, he was giving the Sword to Nico, who she really dislikes, as a reward for his service. That gold key on the pommel of his sword is one of the 'Keys of Hades.' When he talks about having searched for Bianca to try and bring her back, that's how he was planning on doing it."

"Why does Nico having that type of power scare the crap out of me?!"

"Well for starters, it might have something to do with his hat. You did notice that right? You who has a hat just like her mother's 'Helm of Invisibility' did manage to notice the hat Nico was wearing yes?"

"You mean the 'Helm of Terror?' Nico has a copy of that?" I can hear Percy giving a muffled laugh as I look down at Nico. He gives me an apologetic shrug and pulls his baseball cap out of his pocket. Immediately, I feel an almost overriding fear of Nico, and I realize that I was feeling that all day. Nico mouths 'sorry' as he puts it away, and I feel better almost immediately. Nice hat!

"I can't believe you didn't notice that."

"I was busy worrying about other things." Annabeth say's with something of a huff. "Like how is Nico going to deal with us now that he has nowhere to run off too when his feelings for you get to be too much?"

"Don't remind me, or him about that. I'm trying to maintain some sort of real friendship with him, not just a 'hey there fellow half-blood' type of thing. I would appreciate it if no one reminded him that he wants to kill me because of Bianca." I look at Nico, he just rolls his eyes, yep, Percy is missing it.

"Percy, that's not the feelings for you I was talking about. On my mother's shield, Nico is gay, and he has a crush on you. He is deathly afraid of being even further ostracized than he already is, and worse, losing the respect of his father."

"Deathly afraid, you made a pun." Loud arm thump. "Now who's being silly. You do know who his dad and uncles are right? Trust me, Nico being gay would not bother his dad on any level. Persephone's tit, I think all three of them would love it if all of their children where gay, less chance of us founding a dynasty and overthrowing them. No, him being gay isn't it, I think he's still trying to work out that I wasn't responsible for Bianca's death, other than I couldn't stop it."

"Percy, I think you're making a mistake in ignoring this. Please trust me on this, he's having a problem, and I think you need to talk to him about it."

"How, just walk up to him and say 'hey Nico, did you know your dad has entire harems of boy-toys for when he's in the mood for something other than women.' Is that what you want me to say?"

"His dad does not have entire harems filled with boy-toys."

"Um, actually, he does. A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting dad. While he was holding court, my half-brother Triton decided to actually act kind to me, or so I thought, and give me a grand tour of dad's palace. Sure enough, we got to where my dad keeps his harems about the time court adjourns, when dad comes looking for me, he finds us right there with Triton letting me in on all of dads sexual exploits. One very LONG and highly awkward conversation later, I have learned that dad, and both of my uncles, as well as several others on the council, are as BI as the number two."

"As bi as the number two, really. If that's true, then why hasn't Nico's dad said something to him?"

"Ok, I can see this now. Nico's worried that his dad won't approve, and let's face it, he's not the easiest of fathers to talk to. And considering how embarrassed my dad was, something tells me, he'll never mention it to Nico. So, what's Nico been doing for the most of the past three years, hanging around the underworld, learning about life from a ghost who happens to; a, hate me, b, hate him, c, hate his father, and d, hate both half-bloods in general and the others on the council. Yeah, I can see Nico having got some misinformation about that."

"You don't seem all that bothered by it."

"Who knows, maybe in a couple of centuries, if we are immortal, I'll get curious and take him up on it, that is if you'll ever let me out of your sight. I hope he is bi though, Terry has a huge crush on him. She made him the cane by the way, no idea what it does."

"That's too bad, I really hope you're right, and he does swing both ways. I think they'd make a fine couple. As for letting you out of my sight, who says that I'm not a lesbian?"

"The fact that you not only married me, but that you've never shown the slightest hesitation to enjoy yourself when we actually manage to get enough privacy to get it on."

"Good points, both of them, but that doesn't mean I'm not bi."

"Hmmm, now you're just turning me on. Maybe you can demonstrate sometime? Or have you tried it out yet? Is that why you were thinking of joining the hunters?!"

"Err, kind of. I've never been good with feelings, and I was already getting hooked on you, so I ran. I really am sorry about that, but in my defense, I was the same age as Nico is now, so I wasn't thinking straight."

"Oh man, maybe that's the reason Thalia did become a hunter. Of the three of them, her dad is the one that I can actually see giving her the tour himself, and offering up his seconds for when she starts getting active. Yeah, I can see that, and see it driving her to the hunters."

"Oh gods, so can I. As for having tried it, as a matter of fact, I have, and yes, I enjoyed it. I guess we're all ancient Greeks at heart."

"With who?! Surely not the Shrew!"

"Oh gods no! That lady is insane. If I even considered it with anyone from her cabin, everyone in camp would know within the hour. No, it was someone in California I met. It was just an experiment, I am loyal, so don't worry about ever losing me in the future."

"I wasn't worried, just fantasying."

There's another load arm slap; "Well, you know, we have privacy now."

"Yes, but we're also guests in a house of people who can smell that on us, so we really shouldn't."

"Well that's just too bad for you mister, because in a few moments, I'm going to take matters into my own hands. And since I'll be rubbing against you, you'll smell like it anyway, so you might as well enjoy the benefits if you're going to get the blame."

With that, I hear Percy growl, and Annabeth giggle. I decide to give them their privacy for now, it doesn't seem like they're going to be having any useful conversation anytime soon. I tap Nico on his shoulder and indicate we should go down stairs. I could use a sandwich, and we can talk in the dining room.


	15. A Disturbing Sandwich

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

00088888000

The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

00088888000

**ADAM**

We head downstairs and I have Nico put his stuff in one of the ground floor bedrooms. As I often have pack members staying over, my house has lots of extra bedrooms. We head into the kitchen and I open one of the coolers that have temporarily replaced my nice steel refrigerator so I can make us some sandwiches.

Nico looks at me; "So, do you want to start off the awkward conversation, or should I?"

"You just did, thanks."

He gives a short bark of laughter, "Yes, I suppose I did didn't I. So, which part of their conversation would you like me to elaborate on, or do you want to talk about something completely different?"

"Let's start with what YOU think is the most pressing issue for you guys."

"In all honesty, I haven't really thought about it. I've never really been much of a pre-planner when it comes to my life. Being the son of death in a society were almost no one survives past twenty doesn't lend itself to major introspection. Having said that, I have a tendency to agree with Percy, though I think that the biggest problem with retaining independence isn't going to be age, I'm proof of that, but resources, namely food and money. We've got some, and Percy can always summon the bounty of the sea if need be, and Terry could always build stuff for people, but ultimately, those aren't going to cut it for long run, at least not without some adult intervention. If nothing else, holding the patents on Terry's inventions in trust until she's eighteen. Maybe we can get Hestia to have Julius to do it, he's already a part of our society?"

"Well, for someone who says he's not given to introspection, you came up with that pretty quick. Something to remember, you are going to need some type of schooling. If nothing else, you talking about the differences in world war two means our worlds aren't identical, so you're going to need to relearn history, plus, I'm thinking you haven't had much formal education in the first place. And what you have had, the records aren't going to be accessible."

"I thought that was why we were pretending to be friends of your daughter who found ourselves in a bind? As for school, I attended grade school in the early forties, but everything was about the war effort, and the last three years since we emerged from wherever my sister and I were, I've had about two, maybe three months. For most of that time, Percy was right, I spent it wandering around the underworld, or the 'Labyrinth of Daedalus' trying to learn about the world on my own terms. Turns out, that wasn't so smart, though it did turn out for the best in many ways. Maybe I can summon a ghost of a teacher who's willing to put up with us to teach us?"

"I really hope you're joking about that. I've already had child welfare called, so tomorrow they're sending someone out. The two they're sending are both part fae, so you don't have to hide that you're not a plain normal mortal, and they can help come up with a descent cover story, but you will have to go to school, especially now, with us being under such close scrutiny. By the way, avoid answering questions from Cantrip, they've gotten way too power trippy for the tastes of the supernatural community. They were supposed to be a government funded department for cultural understanding and to act as a bridge between humans and fae at first, then werewolves. Somewhere, somehow, they got law enforcement powers and a developed a tendency to hire some of the most bigoted people in the government. We can't avoid totally, them being curious about you, but let's not give them too many reasons to inquire into your past."

"I was planning on giving a different, and sarcastic answer every time someone asked me anything about my past, that way I could slide the truth in and they'd automatically disbelieve it, if not actively place it on the; we're not even going to investigate pile."

"Interesting, but what happens if you ever have a case where you need them to believe you? If you get in the habit of lying all the time, then people always consider you a liar. From there, they tend to start thinking of you in a more and more negative manner. Then, when something really bad happens, they blame you, and nothing you say will be believed."

"Ok, I guess you're right on that, like I said earlier, not much for planning out the path of my life. What else you got?"

"Your friends mentioned the possibility that you're now immortal, what's your take on that?"

"If we can survive for the next couple of years, sure why not, though I hope we can at least age to our twenties. I've got enough problems with my preferences to have to deal with being a little kid at the same time. That's just creepy."

"You could always date a fae. Yo-yo girl might not be to your taste, but there are several other fae who disguise their power behind facades of childhood. If nothing else, I doubt the new Columbia is actually a little girl."

"Interesting idea, but I'd like to avoid that if I can. I've had a bad experience with a preteen sociopath that had supernatural powers. I don't ever want to see another 'Field of Limbs' again!"

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really, let's just say that after I killed her, I escorted her soul to Hades and insured that she spent eternity being buried 'ALIVE' except for her hands and feet and having someone mow them off twice per day. What?! So I inherited my dad's sense of irony."

OOOKKKKAAAYYYY! Nico has a rather brutal sense of justice.

That was not something I wanted to ever hear. Bad as the comment was, I couldn't detect the slightest hint of a lie. He'd really done that. On the one hand, I'm horrified at what he said, on the other, I'm genuinely curious about what the 'she' did to make him so angry, even as I realize that the answer would probably make me sick.

I'm also worried about the mental health of the kids. All five of them seem to suffer from one condition or another. God, I wonder if Sam can recommend a good psychologist who can deal with the supernatural. Maybe there's one that is a werewolf and wouldn't mind moving out to the tri-cities? Mercy has often made jokes about the mental health of various members of the pack, and on several occasions, she's said it were it wasn't a joke. Maybe these kids just gave me an excuse that wouldn't actually set off more resentment in the ranks. I've got to remember to ask Sam about that.

"How about we move the conversation to a saver topic. Though to end that topic, I'd like you to talk to Warren and his mate Kyle. I'm pretty sure their life experiences aren't anywhere close to the same as yours, it might help to talk to a couple of trustworthy gay men to help you deal with what you're going through. Now, let's see, how much can you tell me about Percy and his powers?"

"Don't make the mistake of getting into a fight with him. You will lose, badly. There is only two ways he can be hurt. One, find his weak spot, his Achilles heal if you will. It's not his heal by the way, at least I hope he didn't choose such an obvious location, Luke's was under his upper right arm, the only person who has a clue about Percy's is Annabeth, and she is his other weakness. Not only would her death destabilize him emotionally, far worse than just a lover would, but any attack she makes ignores his immunity. And she's got more than enough skill in battle to not accidently hit him, just so you know. Even before he had that going for him, he'd managed to defeat several titans. Hades, the incident he mentioned about my sword, the three of us are the most powerful half-bloods in the world, or at least we were, and Thalia and me both, combined and in full health were barely managing to hold our own against Iapetus. Then along comes Percy, barely alive from injuries and poison he'd suffered, as well as exhaustion, and he absolutely trounces Iapetus on his own. He'd also beat Atlas, and not just tricked him like Heracles, but actually beat him in combat, and several others as well. Yeah, there's a reason that EVERYONE in our camp has a crush on Percy, to one degree or another, even Clarissa. Half of the completely straight, never consider a guy if their life depended on it people wouldn't even hesitate if Percy showed an interest in them."

Nico is giving me a lot more information than I think he realizes, thanks to his crush, he's bragging about his powers. On the other hand, even if he's overstating them, and I really hope he is, then Percy is a grade-A major power that I really do not want to become a threat. It also confirms my earlier suspicion that Percy is an Alpha of considerable ability.

"It sounds like he'd do very well as a werewolf. I've already taken note that he is a very dominant person, though, like Bran, he doesn't dominate unless he has too, he just IS dominant. Can he talk to horses? It looked like he was with Riverwind."

"Not only can he talk to them, but they seem to become more intelligent when he's around, both in the present and for what has transpired in the past, and I've never seen any that wouldn't obey him either. In a society that tends to make use of horse like creatures, he is an excellent spy."

"What about your hat and sword? Can you tell me about those?"

Now Nico is looking hesitant; "Not really that much, really, what you need to remember, dad probably booby trapped them in case anyone else should try and use them, or if I tried to use them against him. Beyond that, all I'm confortable saying is that my hat isn't actually alive like your daughter Jesse was saying, that was simply how her mind interpreted the affect, and once she said it out loud, it began to affect the rest of you the same way. Sorry again about that, but I'm not to Percy's level when it comes to fighting, so I like to keep as many advantages as I can."

"What about your other powers?"

"Before today, I had limited control of the dead, spirits or animated corpses and can shadow travel. Same with my sister Bianca. I have another half sister, Hazel, who I've never told the others about, she can control the earth and summon it's wealth, though anything of value she summons is cursed by the greed of her mother who forced our father to give her that power. Personally, I'm not sure I'd trade with her. As of today, I'm not entirely sure, I can feel the earth around me, I know every single line, cable, pipe or vent under your property, as well as were everything is buried, and I've somehow gained the ability to name all the plants around here, but I'm not really sure how far those abilities go."

"Why haven't you told the others about Hazel?"

"That's really complicated ok. But it basically boils down to the fact that she died before my mom did. I never knew about her until I was searching the underworld for Bianca. I met Hazel, she'd taken half the load of sin from her mother so she wouldn't be condemned to eternal punishment, but that meant that Hazel was barred from paradise as well. I decided that since Bianca had already chosen reincarnation, even though she had earned paradise, and I couldn't help her anymore, that I'd help Hazel instead. Since there was this big prophecy thing that just happened, and Percy's choice of reward from the council, that there was no way I'd be able to convince anyone at camp half-blood that she was just an unknown, new to camp. During my walk about in the underworld, I learned of another camp that the council kept separate from each other for all of our safety, the way it was set up would be easier for someone to join without revealing parentage. And since she was technically an escaped soul, dad couldn't acknowledge her without reclaiming her as well. So, that's where I sent her and why I never told the others, both because they shouldn't learn of the other camp, especially Annabeth, but also so they don't learn I have helped souls escape the underworld."

HMMMM… It's going to take some time for my mind to stop reeling from that little tid bit.


	16. We Dream the Same Things Every Night

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

**00088888000**

The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

**00088888000**

Once again, over extended dialogue has reared its head in the last chapter (this one as well). To make it worse, I didn't even get to the part of the conversation I wanted, and had to add it to this chapter. Originally, this chapter and the last were to be one chapter. Once I started writing the actual dialog, it expanded, and expanded, and expanded, etc. I'd like to say I'm sorry, but honestly, it's going to continue.

**00088888000**

On Terry; I first came up with the idea for Terry several years ago, back before the 'Last Olympian' came out. The series had several different pairings, and in a conversation with a friend, we discussed what the various children would be like, what powers they'd have, etc. I came to the conclusion that they'd have a wider mix of powers, but they'd be weaker in almost all areas then someone who had fewer abilities. But that there'd be exceptions in that the particular power mix would result in one or two combinations that would be better than anyone else's powers; or at least different but equal.

I also came to the conclusion that the gods wouldn't like their existence. For all their abilities, half-bloods are basically less powerful versions of their parents. The only ability that Percy has that Poseidon doesn't is the Curse of Achilles, and it's not like that ability can't be obtained by others. But when you start to mix and match abilities, than you start to run into complications, after all, how similar are Aries and Hephaestus to either Zeus or Hera? What would the son of Percy and Annabeth be like power and ability wise?

That's not to say their divine grandparents wouldn't like them, just that they'd be under closer scrutiny than would be normal, as much as the children of the big three, or more if one of their parents was a child of the big three. I was originally planning on using Harley from 'The Lost Hero' but on rereading that chapter, I realized he was only eight, and eleven and thirteen is going to be hard enough to write. And I had always planned on making whoever I chose a mix. I also wanted to set the stage for future stories without contradicting this one and that it isn't completely non-canon to have a child of half-bloods, though I think Camp Jupiter got most of them in cannon.

**00088888000**

**ADAM**

"OK, what about Terry, what can you tell me about her?"

"Honestly, not a whole lot. She made me the cane about two weeks ago when I brought her cabin some materials and presented them with a challenge." Nico's got a small grin, he enjoyed that exchange, "They've been having problems every since Beckendorf was killed. Terry was the only one who'd take me up on it. She did a good job too. Of course, I never realized she had a crush on me. Based on what Percy just said, I'd hazard a guess and say that her cabin decided to send her so she could go on a date with me, maybe they even got Chiron in on it. Not sure if they wanted me to notice her, or if they wanted her to see that I'm not what she really wants. Has for me being bi, I must admit, I've never thought about it. I've known that I've had a crush on Percy for some time, something Minos would egg me on about. Even after finding out what he was about, I still believed what he'd said about that. Until just now, his information was all I had to work with, it never dawned on me that my father wouldn't be upset, much less go that way himself. Still, I've never really thought about girls, so, since I had a crush on Percy, I just assumed that I was gay and never considered I might be bi. I'll have to think about that."

"I meant, can you tell me about HER."

"Oh… Um, not really. Her name and what cabin she lived in and that she does really good work was about the extent of my knowledge of her until today. I didn't even know that she was the daughter of a pair of half-bloods instead of a normal half-blood. I don't really think of it to often."

"Your lives are really that screwed up and violent that you never realized you could have kids before?" That's just strange.

"I guess it's just something we never talk about. I once heard a couple of campers talking and when one of them started to talk about his future dreams, his friends quickly shut him up. Fate listens to half-bloods, and she really enjoys screwing with us. One of them told him that it's like a war movie, whoever talks about their girlfriend or mother will get killed in some horribly improbable and painful manner. So we never discuss things like that."

"Um, ok, what about Annabeth? What can you tell me about her?"

"That's a hard one. Until tonight, I honestly thought her only power was just intelligence, like Percy said, she's SMART! She's got a head for tactics and strategy, would be a national chess champion if she didn't get bored and start playfully throwing pieces at the other player when they take more than two seconds to make a move, she's ADHD like the rest of us. She's really good in combat, though I always thought that was because she's been training since she was six, and unlike Percy and me, she, and Terry as well I suppose, can actually successfully use a ranged weapon."

"You two can't use ranged weapons?!"

"I'm a child of the Earth, Percy is the son of the Sea, air doesn't like us. Once a weapon or projectile leaves contact with us, air will see to it that we miss. We are far more dangerous to our friends than to our enemies when we use bows. So if you ever decide to kill us, stay far away, if you can." He's smirking at the last bit, so something tells me that's not as easy of a proposition as he makes it sound.

"So, based on your previous questions, you're next going to ask me about Rachel right?"

I nod silently letting him carry as much of the conversation as he wants, something tells me, he doesn't get the chance that often.

"Rachel is the 'Oracle of Delphi', kind of. I'm not a hundred percent on how that works or the history behind it, so I can't tell you to much you haven't already seen. The skull face and claws are new, I think, but my experience with her doing actual prophecies is somewhat lacking."

I catch the 'Not Lie' he gave me about Rachel. He doesn't know everything, so he can truthfully say he can't tell me 'Everything' and tried to use that to imply he doesn't know anything but messed up when he said can't. And I just realized how much time I've spent dealing with Fae. He isn't anywhere near as good with not-lies as they are, though I am beginning to wonder how much of what he is saying falls in the not-lie category as well.

"What did you see? When Percy was describing what happened to you guys out in the, I don't even know what to call it, void between dimensions, you looked startled, like you experienced something different. I know, at least in part, that Mercy saw something different, and what it was she saw. That was partly shared down, pack bounds. But what was it you saw?" I hesitate when I say pack bounds, I don't want to get into mating bounds.

He looks REALLY uncomfortable now. "First, it's not between dimensions. A dimension and a plane is still part of the same universe. Hades, Tartarus, etc, they're all different planes of existence, but part of the same universe our earth was part of. A different dimension is just another way to describe seeing more of reality then other people. The fourth dimension, etc. This is a completely different universe, just to get that straight." He then gets a really faraway look to his eyes, "I saw the souls that make up the barrier."

What?! "You saw dead people made into a barrier?"

"NOT THE DEAD! Not the dead! The Not-Born! The souls of those who never existed, those who can never be."

"Why do I get the impression that I'm going to need a bottle of Vodka to understand that?"

"If you've got a bottle handy, I could use a drink just from thinking about them."

"You are not old enough to drink." Does he even know about that law, when was drinking made illegal for children?

"That is such a dumb law, and could only exist in this country." Oh how little he knows about mundane society, "And technically speaking, I would be grandfathered in, since I was born well before that law was made. By my immigration papers, which I actually still have, or had, they're in my cabin, I am in my late seventies."

I laugh at that, he's got a point even if I don't think a court would agree, but I AM trying to get information out of him, and drunk people talk more freely so I get a couple of glasses and some wine, not vodka.

"So, the barrier of our world is made up of, what, unused souls?" That really is a far more disturbing question than I ever imagined I'd ever have a need to ask.

"I'm not really sure, I don't think so, maybe they're just clinging to it like flies on a corpse. They're basically pure possibility, everything that could ever be, everything that might have been, but no more. What they are is nearly impossible to understand, much less describe. They were just floating out there, between the barriers, and they so completely covered the barriers that it looked like it was made of them. Maybe it was? But I THINK that it is more likely that, as possibilities, they cling to the barriers that they still have a chance to be, and float away awhile after they can no longer be to try and find someplace to be."

"I think you are giving me a headache?"

"Trying looking at them! I've seen some pretty whacked out things in my short life, but nothing screams nightmare fodder like the Not-Born." This coming from the kid who had some girls limbs hacked off twice a day (I'm assuming they grow back, probably painfully) because of some sick game she was playing?

"To make matters worse, even though I had my eyes closed, I could still hear them. Occasionally I'd hear one of them scream in pleasure, maybe, sort of, maybe the found some way to be, maybe it just farted, maybe it was a scream of anger or pain." He shudders, "And I'm pretty sure that Ms. O'Leary was 'Helped' by some of them in getting a grip on the barrier. Maybe they were just kind souls, maybe they wanted to screw with us, or you, or maybe they just saw us as an opportunity to finally become. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into random movements and sounds of things I can never fully understand."

"I think that I will be getting the vodka out after all. And I also think that it is a very good thing that the 'River-Devil' can't go there. That is a possibility, no pun intended, that I never want to consider. And might actually be what the old Native Americans seers saw when they said she would eat the world. You kids really have brought a whole new level of 'Screwed Up' to our life."

"Sorry, but this is actually somewhat sedate for us." He's making a joke, but it's based on a part truth, the mind boggles.

"So, Mercy is normally much better at making mental connections than she was today, rescuing you kids took a lot out of her, and the pack. But I'm no slouch. Maybe it's just that I don't WANT to see it, maybe I have and I'm looking for conformation, but I have to ask, to hear one of you kids say it. Who are you guys?!"

**Percy**

I'm dreaming again. Of everything I dislike about being a half-blood, the dreams are probably the worst. I know that they actually tend to help us, give us information we sometimes desperately need, but really, a few nights of actual rest would be nice every once in a while. Hey, I just thought about it, maybe I can ask Terry to build us a dream-catcher like they sell at Indian craft stores. Maybe she'd shoot me if I ever asked. Maybe that's why I almost never have these types of dreams when I sleep in my mom's room. Oh well, too late for that now.

I can feel another presence, Annabeth, I'm still inside her, we were far more exhausted than we thought when we started and I can even sort of hear a mental snort that sounds just like her. Wow, think of the possibilities for secret communications. A bark of laughter comes down the line, I've been spending too much time with the other kids from the Athena cabin if I'm starting to think of sex as good for secret communications. Even Annabeth doesn't think like that. A purr, yep, we're communicating all right.

Just as I'm about thinking this might be a gift, that we can continue while we're asleep, my perceptions change, and once again, I'm back in the 'Void' whatever you want to call it. Except this time, I'm also seeing it like Annabeth saw it, as MONUMENTAL architecture that completely ignores Euclidian laws of dimensions. It's still nothingness. Darkness, nothingness, void, non-creation, the absence of anything, whatever you want to call it, but its nothingness built with a shape and purpose. Its nothingness shaped by Escher, and completely beyond my ability to understand.

And it all but confirms Annabeth and me are sharing heads right now, I normally have no idea who or what Euclid and Escher are. I can feel her surprise when she realizes that I perceived this 'Place' as completely devoid of anything. I suspect that our powers are reflected in what we see. Since there is no water here, I see nothing, Annabeth however, would see it as great barriers, walls and monuments.

As I watch my dream unfold, I'm seeing us fall through the void again, and I can actually see us split off duplicates, it's like watching cells being splitting in science class, incredibly creepy. When Ms. O'Leary manages to get a grip on the wall of nothingness, and it's clear now just how much she was freaking out about that, I watch as several copies of us break away, and I see our convergence with the duplicates from this side. It's like they got sucked into us like water down a drain. We also see something else enter through the barrier a little ways off.

The view shifts, and I see someone strange, with a weird long tongue tucking us into bed, then we're arguing with some young kid I don't know about whether or not he can keep his penguins, then I see us, Annabeth and I, along with a stranger, driving several cars filled with wolves, presumably werewolves as they don't look quite right. Then I see us all fighting some things, they look like giant dogs made from lava, and I see Mercy, presumably dead, being eaten by one of them and I'm not shaped like a human. The view shifts again, farther into the future, and I see us fighting a giant, mutated river snake, then again, I see Terry crying, looking at a computer, and arguing about the possibility of destroying the planet.

The view shifts again, and we're back in the void following a group of us falling past us hanging in mid-nothingness, the other us falls a bit further before landing at the top of some steps and tumbling down them. Hades is there, and is actually acting nice to us, the other us. The view shifts, and I'm fighting with some black kid who is using magic, then we're fighting together to defeat a giant crocodile, and then I'm standing in front of a Roman legion, being accepted into it while Annabeth and the camp search for me, then I'm on a quest with a strange boy and girl from the legion. The girl, it turns out is a second sister of Nico, and the boy is a nephew of sorts, a descendent of dads who can shape change. Then I'm leading the Romans into a battle where I evidently use the body of a god to kill an enemy. These dreams can be really annoying with how much information they give you or don't give you. Then I'm with Annabeth, the two strangers from my quest and three others on a flying ship, then Nico is with us, then Annabeth is fighting a giant spider, and the two of us are falling into Tartarus. I think I like this life better than the one I'm seeing, then I see the two of us struggling across the landscape of hell itself. We look like the images of death camp survivors, our clothes are rags, we're starving and exhausted, barely alive, but we have one hell of a guide, Iapetus. Then we're fighting over an elevator (?) and then we're out.

Next, we're falling through the void, and we land in the middle of a great hallway in a mansion. Several kids, carrying schoolbooks are standing around as well as what are presumably teachers. Hah, those other us landed in a school. I see one of the teachers, male, with weird hair and sideburns, as well as three bone claws sticking out of each hand start to question us then decide we aren't enemies so he'll leave the questions to others while he gets some beer. Dang, that's a school I actually might like.

Then, once again, we're falling and we land on the deck of a carrier. We're almost instantly surrounded by armed guards, including several that, thanks to my powers, I recognize as NCIS agents, so I know that we landed in the middle of some investigation or another, as normally there aren't that many agents aboard.

Then the view shifts, and we land in the middle of the ocean, yay, where we are rescued by aquatic dinosaurs who bring us to some US Navy ships, but ships the size of battleships made from wood and powered by sail, and crewed by cat-monkey cross-breeds and some humans. Then the view shifts and we're fighting Japanese feathered dinosaurs, crewing giant iron ships like the Merrimack. Then the view shifts again, Annabeth is flying a sea plane dropping bombs on a grotesque creature that looks vaguely like the other lizards, I'm on a wooden sailing ship with no crew being sailed and weapons crewed by just my power, cannons blasting away at jap-liz ships while trying to get to a giant creature that looks like a tentacle-rape monster from Japanese animation and a (relatively speaking) modern destroyer steams around the edge of the battle trying to sneak past to raid the coast we're attacking. Meanwhile, Terry and penguin boy are in some city making weapons and putting enchantments of protection on ships, and Nico is leading a charge of ghosts and skeletons and British Redcoats against humans who had one of the cat-monkey people wrapped tightly in barbed wire and nailed to a cross like a very demented version of Christianity.

When the view shifts again, we're back to falling and we land in a corn field near a large city in the middle of Kansas, then we're fighting other people, in costumes with strange powers, then we're fighting by their sides against other people in strange costumes.

Then we're in our beds at Mr. Hauptman's residence and some strange man with weird eyes and long tongue is putting a blanket over the house, whispering soothing sounds to us.

Then, we're falling again, and we land in a field only to have Terry and me stepped on by a giant robot. Annabeth tries to fry it with a lightning bolt (when'd she get that power) and thankfully we both survive, Terry is resistant to metal it seems and my larger form helped reduce the pressure on her, while another robot is shouting over a PA system, and presumably a radio, to stop the exercise because civilians are on the training grounds. Then the view shifts and I'm on a space ship having no problem with the lack of water (either it's 'The Sea of Space' or that it's a space SHIP) and we're all piloting some of those giant robots, though Annabeth's can turn into a space plane, fighting other giant robots with insignias that look like green birds.

Then Mercy's cat is running for its life and hiding under our bed, its hairs drifting around the room, settling on us, affecting the magic blanket on us.

Then, we're falling and landing in a huge rundown city in a massive building that was just taken over by a gang, at some point we end up helping some cops, a murderously violent cop and a rookie telepathic cop, then I'm standing over some children, protecting them with my body and shield while the gang rips their homes apart with a massive amount of gun fire from electric Gatling guns. Then we're walking out to be greeted by more cops, then next we're helping them defeat the four cops of the apocalypse. Don't ask, I don't understand either.

Next we land in the middle of an investigation being held by the FBI and the equivalent agency from two different Earths, hey, maybe we can dream about them again sometime because that world obviously has someone on it who understands travel between universes.

Then we were fighting First World War era Germans in San Francisco, then Japanese on land in Hawaii, then Russians during the Second World War.

Then, we're back in the void, except this time, we've interrupted a convoy, flock, caravan, whatever, of large, mechanical spiders, many of which are knocked in various directions, at least one of which passes by a group of us hanging in mid-nothingness (maybe it WAS us), then we're fighting the things, one of them found my weak spot and has borrowed in and taken control of me, Annabeth is crying and trying to kill this NOT-ME while Nico flings Terry and Rachel away, Ms. O'Leary is already dead, then Nico attacks with his sword and cane while Terry unleashes hell from her gun while drifting further away.

Then I see a different group of us who are also caught up in the battle, being able to see the other us, except that this group, Annabeth is taken over, and only I survive, horribly injured, I fall through the wall of nothingness into what at first appears to be this same world, but both Mercy and Jesse look younger. I'm set upon by a werewolf who, since I've been injured so badly by the NOT-Annabeth, is able to maul me enough to become one.

Then I see this world's version of Mercy standing in front of weird tongue man holding Λύκος in a confrontational manner, maybe, the sword seems to be invisible so maybe he doesn't see it, while at the same time, he continues to sooth and comfort us in our sleep. How neat is that, though the blanket seems to be getting itchy, or maybe just loose.

Then we see Terry and Rachel landing in an alley way were they immediately get caught up in a fight between a younger version of the robot pilot from earlier in the dream, all the while crying for our loss, then they're helping them fight the green bird men by building better robots and reciting prophecy.

Next, we land in a lounge in the middle of a giant castle, surrounded by weirdly dressed men and women holding sticks, one of them says something and Annabeth is held upside down in midair. When her dress comes down, I, along with everyone in the room, realize that she was going commando, probably the surprise she told me I had in store from her. Highly embarrassed, she unleashes with lightning again, more effective this time, on greasy hair stick holder who cast the spell holding her. Then Rachel is giving a prophesy, then we are in a strange store buying those weird sticks, causing Mr. grumpy old clerk to lose patience until we get ones he's satisfied with. Mine is actually made of coral with a pegasus feather at the core, Annabeth's is made from wood taken from a lightning struck stump and containing a feather from some type of magical owl, while Nico's is made from bone, holding inside a phoenix feather, though strangely, grumpy clerk says something about different phoenixes, Rachel's, he mentions will be very good for divinations (oh how little he knows), Terry's is made from some sort of magical, metallic tree, and containing the hair from something called a Veela. Next we see Rachel chasing a toad-like woman around the castle reciting presumably fake prophecy, while the rest of us fly bat winged horses that can only be seen by some of us along with six other kids to a phone booth in London where we go underground and get into a big fight with other weirdly dressed people casting spells.

Then we see Mercy and long tongue man arguing some more while he somehow continues to whisper soothing sounds, then we're back to…What?...

Oh **HELL NO**!


	17. The First Rule of Fight Club

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

**00088888000**

The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

**00088888000**

**READ THIS;** I'm skipping over most of the conversation between Mercy and Beauclaire. I saw no need to repeat what the book already said when just about everyone who's reading this has the book. And if you don't, go buy or borrow a copy, my writing isn't anywhere near as good as Ms. Briggs.

BTW; in myths, Cerberus WAS a hellhound, a really powerful one, but still a hellhound, not something different. After I wrote out the battle, I realized that not everyone would know that, and I couldn't remember if Riordan ever mentions it.

**00088888000**

Fifty geek points to whoever can name all the crossovers in the dream. I'll be nice, the mechanical spiders are OC.

**00088888000**

**Mercy**

Someone was knocking on our door, at three o'clock in the morning. I roll out of bed, Adam isn't in bed, so I decide to let him answer the door, but the knocking continues. He's not in the bathroom, so why isn't he answering. I notice Medea, my cat, still sound asleep and not responding to the noise, I pull on some PJs and my Sig-Sauer, a little insurance helps calm the nerves, especially when confronting someone dumb enough to come at a werewolves home at this ungodly hour. As I'm walking out into the hall, I notice that Λύκος is on my wrist. Is this a good sign or bad?

'_Neither, I'm just here in case you need me.' _I hear in my head,_ 'Considering what I believe is outside, you will probably need assistance if it goes bad.'_

This day has got to be the second worst day of my life (my foster parents dying will forever be my worst). As I check on Jesse, (she's sound asleep with her phone in her hand from making her video diary), I ask this new companion; "So, are you going to help me defeat it then?"

_'Not unless I have to. I'm not yet confident in either mine, or yours, ability to defeat it. My duty is to protect the pack, and you. If that means paralyzing you so it thinks you had a heart attack and died to get it to leave, than that is what I will do. We do not have to kill it to get it to leave.'_

Interesting, "So, what exactly is outside?" I'm checking on the kids when I ask that, Terry and Rachel are in one room, tossing and turning like they're fighting to get away from someone (thankfully, Terry's gun is nowhere to be seen). Annabeth's bed is empty and un-slept in. I find her in the boy's room, in Percy's bed, in what was clearly an intimate meeting before they suddenly fell asleep. Like the other two, they are having some sort of nightmare, though there is less overt struggle, they're holding each other tight. Nico, like Adam, is nowhere to be found.

_'I'm not sure, but it feels very powerful. By the way, think at me, don't talk; people will think you're a looney if you're always talking to yourself. Besides, I'd rather like it if it doesn't know about me so if necessary, I can take it by surprise.'_

"So how do I…" Damn it, _'So how do I think at you?'_

_ 'You just did, God I'm a good teacher. Now, unless you're going to try and sneak out the back, and hope it doesn't kill everyone in anger, maybe we should head downstairs.'_

Great, I've got a sarcastic sword now. _'I outrank you just so you know.'_

_ 'Trust me, I know. What that means however, is that if I need to take control of your body to keep you alive, I have to ask first, possibly getting you killed in that second. We ARE going to have to figure out my rank in the pack though.'_

_'How would we do that? You can't fight without being held by someone, then it would be their victory, not yours.'_

_ 'I don't know, maybe have them hold me, If I can control them without asking, than I outrank them maybe, I know Adam and Warren both outrank me.'_

I head downstairs, it's still knocking on the door. In the kitchen, I notice Adam and Nico, asleep at the makeshift, sort of repaired kitchen table, duct tape is a wonderful thing. I also notice that there is two glasses of wine, and a couple of shot glasses with a bottle of wine, and vodka alongside sandwich fixings. Was Adam trying to get Nico drunk?

I head over to the door, "Who's there?"

**Mercy**

"One weeks' time," Beauclaire said with a near hiss, "Or we shall have another tal… Ahgg" He suddenly cuts out as something hurtled past me and crashed into him, sending both of them into the kitchen.

It takes me a moment, but I soon recognize Ms. O'Leary, or more to the point, I recognize her scent. In form, she's changed, and even though she's smaller now somehow, she's a whole hell of a lot scarier, what with her three heads and all. She grows momentarily larger, before shrinking back down, and I realize she's doing that intentionally, allowing herself to be able to move and fight inside.

Beauclaire makes a gesture, what I assume to be a spell of some sort, but one of her heads makes a noise, like sucking in air, with a purple glow in that mouth, and the magic seems to fizzle, sucked in and eaten by her. One of her other heads points towards Adam and Nico, and the other towards the stairs, and the same sound happens, and Adam and Nico jerk awake, along with the tumbling of people falling out of bed upstairs.

Beauclaire curses, and draws out a sword from somewhere. Nico has his sword and cane, and Adam has a sword as well, and that's when I notice that Λύκος is no longer with me. Adam reacts first, and violently, lounges at Beauclaire, who grabs the broken door to the refrigerator and starts to throw it at Adam. Λύκος in his hand, Adam's attack punches right through the stainless steel door, coming within an inch of Beauclaire before the momentum of the door forces his arm away from him and knocking Adam to the side.

Nico jumps in, there unfortunately isn't enough room to allow more combatants at a time, with his sword and cane. Nico is surprisingly good, actually making Beauclaire work to block his attacks, though he's nowhere near the equal of Beauclaire. On the other hand, it becomes quickly evident that Beauclaire really needs to keep away from Nico's sword, as whatever it's made out off is actually harming him from several inches away, like iron would touching him. Realizing his disadvantage here, Beauclaire kicks Nico in the chest, sending him hurtling back into what remains of the counter, and then disappears, like Stephan does.

Nico, gets up enraged, holds up his cane, which has disappeared above his hand; "GET BACK HERE!" He gives a yank, and Beauclaire has returned and is slammed into the door-less fridge, the shelving inside crumpling from the impact.

Pulling himself out, he is immediately set upon by Adam. With a howl, and a shimmering glow that travels up his arm and across his body starting from Λύκος, Adam transforms, nearly instantly, into the half-wolf/man cross that so few werewolves can manage (and a hell of a lot faster than any can manage). Λύκος changes with him conforming to his new grip. Adam starts hammering Beauclaire with a series of blows designed to focus his attention on Adam, leaving his back exposed to Nico.

Unfortunately, he's a much better swordsman than Adam, and would have won easily if he didn't have to worry about Nico, but worry he did, and come up with a solution. With a gesture, a wave of power erupts from him and blows the two away from him before that power to, is sucked into one of the three heads.

From behind me, I hear Terry shout for everyone to duck as she aims her gun. Beauclaire figures out that he's in incredible danger and dives to be behind Adam just as Terry lets loose with an extended burst.

Have you ever heard a fifty caliber machine gun on full auto. It's an incredibly loud thing. In movies, they almost always fire short, controlled bursts, not Terry. The shells are streaming down at the kitchen. Luckily, she's still on the stairs, so is aiming down, not across where her bullets would hit houses downrange (I really hope she THOUGHT about that, and it wasn't just luck). She's not actually aiming at Beauclaire, he's too close to Adam, she's just doing what the military refers to as suppressive fire. And keeping his head suppressed Beauclaire is, even Ms. O'Leary has ducked away. Me, I'm on my knees cringing and trying to cover my ears. What had remained of the kitchen, has now been thoroughly destroyed, along with several rooms behind the walls. There is water flying everywhere, and I can sense, not hear, Warren, Ben (both had stayed) and Eric rushing up from the basement.

Beauclaire seems to figure out that he's got a little wiggle room, and tosses something at Terry hard enough to stagger her when he hits. Before the gun can go out of control, Percy has grabbed it out of her hands. Standing next to him, Annabeth looks at Beauclaire with extreme rage, and promptly starts blasting him with lightning from her hands, sending him through what was once a beautiful picture window to the back patio.

She jumps down the stairs and runs through the kitchen, wings brushing the door frames, cracking the walls on either side. Wait a minute, WINGS?

Yep, she's got large wings coming out her shoulders. She gets to the window, and launches herself into the air, electricity crackling all around. She gets above where I can see, and starts to unleash on Beauclaire again, who decides it's time to try and retreat again. Once again, Nico gives a shout, and Beauclaire is slammed into the back wall hard enough to crack the beams.

Annabeth lands just as he's getting back up, Percy moves past me, putting Terry's gun in my hand, and rushes out just as Beauclaire attacks Annabeth. He gets to within three or four feet and she smacks him with one of her wings. You laugh, but I will always remember the time I tried for a duck while hunting and got smacked. The duck didn't have supernatural levels of strength. Beauclaire doesn't go more than a foot, before her other wing smacks him away like a ping pong ball. He goes hurtling back towards the kitchen were Percy smacks him with his shield, halting his flight and putting him onto the floor.

You have to give Beauclaire credit, he's up almost instantly. Of course, He's more than smart enough to realize that his life depends on it at this point. He tries to attack Percy, only to find that Percy is a much better swordsman than the others, better in fact than Beauclaire is. Their fight is a blur, they are moving at speeds that even I can barely tell they're even attacking; it's like watching the Kryptonians from the movie 'Man of Steel' fight, except that they don't have the weird ability to just slide across the ground, they're actually moving their legs, kicking at each other as well.

I notice that everyone is standing back watching, which may seem like a bad martial arts troupe, but is actually practical here. None of us are quick enough to have an effect on this fight, and it's clear that the only way we've been holding our own to this point is teamwork and magic weapons.

Suddenly, Beauclaire lunges at Percy, trying to tackle him, only to go right thru Percy and stumble back into the kitchen, where Nico and Adam set upon him, tap water shooting everywhere, mixing with the water from the shattered water heater. Like before, Beauclaire manages to knock them aside, but he's tiring, running low on power, his fae glamor dropping (I wonder if Ms. O'Leary is eating that as well).

Right after knocking the two aside, he dodges another lightning blast, and is comes right past me, giving him a perfect target. As he swings for me, Λύκος is in my hands and causes me to transform into a coyote right that instant, allowing him to miss me. I instantly change back, lying on the floor, looking up, Λύκος is no longer with me, but Terry's gun is. Beauclaire sees me point it at him and jumps back towards Adam just as the hammer clicks, and nothing happens. Λύκος has returned to Adam who is once again in a fight for his life. Ben and Eric grab me and pull me out of the way as Warren grabs the gun and flips the cylinder open to check ammunition; Percy emptied it when he took it from Terry. Snarling in frustration, Warren drops the gun and grabs the fridge door and starts to throw it at Beauclaire.

Give Beauclaire an award for 'Situational Awareness' and quick thinking, he easily ducks aside from the door, and does so in a way that causes both Nico and Adam, who don't see it, to jump into its path, plowing into them and knocking them flat. Beauclaire jumps over them coming at us, Ben raises his arm, Λύκος held in his grip, but before contact can be made, something grabs Beauclaire and yanks him back outside, body slamming him onto the patio like the Hulk does Loki in the 'Avengers' movie.

**Percy**

When long tongue man tries to tackle me, he catches me completely off guard. Ok I think, that was a dumb move. Just as he makes contact, I feel myself shift, and he's going right thru me. Sort of, I'm actually blown apart and simply reform after he's past. This is weird, I'm not thinking straight at this point, between my rage and desire for battle, which I must admit, he's giving as well as I am, and my confusion over what just happened, I'm having a hard time concentrating. I can feel my various abilities start to vie for my attention again, and have to waste precious seconds getting them back under control. But while I'm doing that, the memory of the dream comes to me, shape shifting is a bloodline ability of dads. If I can become water, can I alter my form as well?

Oh, to Hades with it, I decide to add some extra weight and go to full, adult Cyclops size, twelve to sixteen feet. While I'm absorbing water, I decide to mimic Mr. Hauptman's form, and go all werewolf on Mr. Long tongue. Oh yeah, this is going to be awesome.

**Mercy**

The thing in front of us smells like Percy, but Percy has just officially surpassed Nico for being the scariest person on the planet. Even the other kids are starring.

Standing before us is a creature that no one sane could ever imagine. Standing well over ten feet tall, covered in fish scales that somehow evoke fur, fingers ending in claws three times the length of my fingers, but the worst is the head, which is a strange combination of wolf, horse, fish and cyclops. It's actually vaguely like a seahorse in basic shape, but also reminiscent of a wolf, with a single eye that reminds me of a Cylon and a fin goes across the top of his head and down his back like a horse's mane. The snout is the worst, the general seahorse shape is maintained, but it can open like a wolves, and at the very end, it's got a bunch of teeth that stick out like you see in nature shows where the teeth of some fish stick out for several inches past their mouth, except that these teeth look like shark teeth, larger then my opened hand.

We once had a very nice patio and deck, it, like the kitchen and surrounding rooms, is demolished. It also once had a really nice marble counter right next to a large open flame barbeque pit, where we cooked a couple of hours ago. The key word here is 'once.' Percy has shifted his hold on Beauclaire, and is slamming his head into that counter hard enough to crack the marble. While not yet dead, Beauclaire has stopped struggling.

Annabeth walks up to Percy, no one else will go close to him, not eve Ms. O'Leary. As she approaches, she folds her wings across her shoulders, and they become a robe, like priests wear, but not from any religion I'm familiar with. She places her hand on his side and he visibly calms. He looks at her, then looks at him, lifts him up, and slams his head into the counter one last time, letting go has he does so. Beauclaire bounces off the counter, up into the air several feet, well above Percy's new waist height, does a full flip and lands on his face doing what skateboarders refer to has a 'Full Scorpion' where his feet strike the back of his head. He lies very still.

Percy's form shifts, becoming a giant globe of water and Percy steps out of it like it was just a liquid robot he was piloting, maybe it was. He turns to Terry, "Go shut off the water to the kitchen before we completely destroy the house please." It's a little late for that I think.

I hear Jesse let out an exclamation and I turn toward her. She's holding up her phone, recording things; "JESSE! What are you doing?!"

"I'm not going to post it online, this is for my diary! Besides, Dad can use this."

Before I can formulate a reply, my phone rings, the Ringtone 'Of Wolf and Man' by Metallica; Bran (for Adam I use Dogcatcher). As I answer the phone, Jesse say's; "Tell Bran I'll send him my video, and I'll do so from my room so the cops don't realize any of it got recorded."

We can all hear sirens coming towards us at this point, I guess one of our neighbors called about the fully automatic cannon fire. Bran say's; "That would be nice, can anyone give me a rundown of what just happened before they show up?"

Adam steps up, "We haven't got to the point where we know for sure what just happened yet, but no one was killed, although now we need to tie up a Grey Lord before he regains consciousness."


	18. Adrenalin Crash

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

**00088888000**

The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

**00088888000**

**A challenge;** Mercy Thompson and Dexter

_Summary:_ This is a challenge to my readers, do a story from the show Dexter set in the Miami of the Mercy Thompson/Alpha and Omega universe.

_Other details:_ No non canon pairings, no slash, nor making anyone into Fae or werewolves unless they are in canon, or if there are any Dexter shows where someone thinks or says they are supernatural, than you can make it true. You do not have to include the characters from MT or AaO, just their world.

Please set the story in or right after the first season of Dexter (the only one I've seen as of this writing), unless, like I said, there is a show where someone claims to be supernatural.

What I'd like to see is at least one or two chapters before the werewolves reveal themselves, but well after the Fae have come out. Maybe some flashbacks of his father teaching him how to deal with fae since they would have been outed by the time his training began.

I'd then like the story to go thru the big reveal and have all the cops and Dexter have to deal with the possibility of encountering a werewolf, especially Dexter worrying over it.

Maybe even having Dexter deal with a psychotic werewolf or maybe even a vampire, though either one would be a hell of a fight. Dexter would probably quickly find out about the silver solution used in 'Moon Called' assuming he wasn't one of the ones who knew the open secret of werewolves in the first place (I'd prefer no, unless you can make it good).

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Sorry for the delay, but the book 'Deadly Shores' just came out last week, and I managed to wait till the weekend to start reading it. Like most books in the 'Destroyermen' series by Taylor Anderson, it's hard to but down once you get started.

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Anyone here know how to draw? If so, and you want to give it a go, how about Percy's new combat form. I can visualize it in my head, but I'm not sure I did a good job describing it.

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**Adrenalin Crash**

**Mercy**

"And why exactly do you need to tie up a Grey Lord?" Bran asks, "You know what, never mind, call me when you get it sorted. I take it it'll be on the news?"

"Probably" Adam says, "There was high powered, fully automatic gunfire from the house so I can only assume that is why the police are on the way and that the already lurking media will follow."

"Call me when you can." At that, Bran hangs up, and undoubtedly turns on the news, presuming of course that the situation in Atlanta had even allowed him to turn it off.

About that time Terry gets the water turned off and we all notice that there is a giant globe of water floating in midair next to the kitchen on the patio. It's the water Percy had used to form his 'liquid robot' as well as all the loose water from the kitchen. Everything is dry. As soon as the water stops flowing, Percy rules the globe across the ground to the river. As soon as it touches the river, several vaguely humanoid forms jump out and start tearing it to pieces fighting over it as another form walks out and starts skipping towards us, the new Columbia.

Percy turns towards Nico; "Good job, you worked really well with Mr. Hauptman without any time to train or practice together." Next he walks over to Annabeth, kisses her and whispers; "we need to talk" under his breath. He then picks up Terry's gun and walks over to her. "What exactly did you think you were doing?"

I look at Adam, he's back in human form, he's exhausted and Λύκος is back to being a bracelet on his wrist. He's watching the exchange, but not intervening, I'm guessing that he's a wee bit angry at her.

Terry is looking downcast but stubborn; "Percy, those where anti-material, no harm to life form rounds. If I'd accidently hit anyone, it would have just stopped in midair without even scratching the skin. I specifically enchanted them to not even be able to hurt a blade of grass. They can't hurt anything living, it's impossible."

That is…Um, I really can't think of what I should be thinking, but before any thoughts can successfully form, Percy gets right in her face; "SPLINTERS!"

"What?!"

"Splinters Terry! Splinters! If it's impossible for anything living to be hurt by those rounds, how come not only Nico and Mr. Hauptman, but the long tongue man as well, all have injuries from it?"

Long Tongue man? Well, yes, I can see it since they haven't been watching our news.

Before Terry can reply, Percy is talking again. "Splinters, shrapnel, spall, debris, whatever you want to call it! It all amounts to the same thing Terry, hard material moving at high velocity that is quite capable of killing someone. Hades Terry, the vast majority of sailors who died or got crippled in ship to ship combat died of splinters. Almost no one ever actually got hit with a cannonball. It was almost always splinters or high tension objects coming loose when they got hit." He takes a moment to calm himself. "Look, I'm really glad you thought of it. I truly am. I don't think anyone else in your cabin would have. Amphitrite's tits, I didn't even realize you guys could work with firearms, I thought they were banned by the council or something." He hands the gun and shells back to her; "Look, we'll talk about it some more tomorrow, for now, make it disappear before the police arrive."

At that, Adam looks at the river Columbia, the little water girl, not the actual river, unless she is the actual river, then he's looking at her, it's physical representation. And yes, I can feel Adams amusement through our mating bound.

"Yes," he says, "may we help you?"

"No, I was just going to let Lord Perseus know that I had some of my spirits take care of a problem for him and you, and to make sure that it was OK for them to take his former form and incorporate it into themselves."

Adam looks at her; "What?"

"Oh, they just saw Lord Perseus throw the globe of water away to the river. Since he didn't seem to want it anymore, they fought over it to try and claim it for themselves."

Percy looks over at her; "Will that cause you any problems? There wasn't any power in it."

"Oh no, it's just like when some cute guy at the beach that the older girls are drooling over leaves a shirt or something for them to try and keep."

Annabeth starts to giggle; "Percy's got guppies."

"Groupies Featherhead, groupies. And you can have them if you want them. The last thing I want is to have some of Mr. D's cast offs." That comment brings laughter from the kids, but goes right over everyone else's heads.

Adam turns back to her; "So what was the problem you took care of for us?"

"Oh, it's those annoying men in suits who are always pushing people around and waiving badges like River Wardens in people's faces. They were in a rented boat with some of that weird human stuff that lets them listen to what people are saying a long way away. They were trying to get to where they could hear your house so I had some of my spirits capsize the boat and put them ashore down the river on the other side where it's dark and made sure they got lost. I asked the animals in the area to harass and threaten, but not harm them. I also made sure their bang sticks and listening stuff went to the bottom and got buried deep in the mud. I then righted the boat and ran it aground and threw in a bunch of those cans of beverage you humans' drink that make the River Wardens mad and make them arrest you. I don't like the suited men. I hope that was OK."

Translation; she framed some Cantrip agents for drinking and boating and made sure that they were weaponless and had no gear or evidence to use while sending them off lost and embarrassed for several hours. I think I like her.

"By the way Lord Perseus, I'm holding court tomorrow night and I thought I'd invite you and your consort, the 'Lady of Air and Storms.' If you're interested, it's at the 'Palace of Cascades' starting sundown." At that, she skips back to the river.

Percy just groans, but Annabeth looks at him; "You have to go you know, you gave your favor to her, so now you have to go and check on her, and lend her your support in court, or just make sure the other river spirits know you support her. Which I suspect, is what she wants."

"I know Annabeth, I know. I really hope I don't have to do that in every river in the world. Maybe that's why dad occasionally gets mad and destroys boats sometimes?"

"Don't joke, the police are here now. Pretty quick response time!" Annabeth says the last part loudly while watching Warren open the front door for the police.

"Guns holstered!" Warren shouts at the police as they enter, "the fight is over, but tensions are high. You really don't want to be acting in a threatening manner right now."

The three deputies look at Warren for a second, but all of them holster their weapons, one of them calling in a code of some sort over the radio. Warren escorts them into what remains of the kitchen and patio where Ben and Adam are placing Beauclaire (who has yet to regain consciousness or his glamor form) in a chair from the living room that they placed on a sheet brought to them by Rachel, who also has a large container of Morten's salt. They quickly zip tie his hands to the arms of the chair and surround it in a circle of salt. Terry then places an iron chain in a circle around that, followed by an outer circle of salt.

Warren is giving the deputies an edited version of what happened, which is basically; 'we were downstairs talking, fell unconscious, suddenly woke up to the sounds of Adam and other quests fighting the intruder, ran upstairs to join the fight as it was just about over, intruder rendered inert.' Add in a few details like; yes, this is the same being that murdered the senator's son on live TV, yes he's extremely powerful and you really don't want him in your jail, and you're left with several deputies who are way outside their pay grade who are more than happy to let us deal with him, though they're sticking around until their boss arrives or he tells them to leave.

Percy comes in with a glass of water from a bathroom and pours it on Beauclaire's face, halting the fall of the water and returning it again to wash upwards across him an into his nose until he wakes up, and then is careful to make sure the water doesn't disrupt the salt circles.

When he comes to, he looks around to assess his situation. He's incredibly calm all things considered, I highly doubt he had any idea what was in store for him here.

"So, here I am, arrest me."

"For what?" Adam asks; "I haven't yet decided to press charges, and trashed kitchen aside, there's no evidence of a crime, only our word. Of course, there is that whole murdered on TV thing, but let's face it, we all know that you'll be out soon enough, just shadow travel away like you tried earlier, so no, I think we can convince these fine gentlemen and lady, that it'd be best to deal with you here, one way or another. Besides, the whole murdered senator's son thing is now the problem of the State Department; after all, you are a citizen of a foreign country."

"I was unaware that it has been recognized as such."

"Sure it has. The Constitution forbids active military from being used against US citizens on home soil, so the Federal government chose to recognize you the moment they sent active duty Air Force planes to bomb you. So, since that is not in my control, how about we move the discussion to whether or not we kill you, who could legitimately be declared a foreign terrorist, this fine evening?"

"Aw, I see, do I at least get to ply my lawyer training?"

"I'd prefer no, but something tells me, if we want to come up with a way to let you live, we'll have to allow a little lawyering." Seeing Beauclaire's look, Adam adds; "I'd prefer not to have to kill you. We have enough problems right now that war with the fae is not on my agenda unless necessary. You, however, are the one who attacked my home. You must answer for that!"

"Aw, actually no. I was not the one who took aggressive action first, that was the large dog-like creature." He nods towards Ms. O'Leary, who, while still black, is back to a single head and only Marmaduke sized.

Before Adam can respond, Annabeth cuts in; "You lying piece of SHIT! That spell you cast was an ATTACK! We did not want to be asleep at that moment, how did you know we weren't in the process of trying to stop a heart attack, or some other life preserving action, you stupid ass wipe?!" She looks like she's about to attack again, but Percy puts his hand on her shoulder and she calms.

Adam looks at Beauclaire; "She's got a valid point. The only person in the house who was asleep when you came was Mercy. You used magic on everyone else, unless they gave you prior permission, which I did not, then you attacked first. My home, my territory, has been violated by you. You have threatened and assaulted not only me, but my family and quests as well. Nor do I believe for a second, that in a fae court, you'd ever allow someone to do something similar to you and your guests. So, my question to you is; what can you do or say that would allow us to not kill you?"

"Mr. Hauptman, surely you don't think tha…" He cuts off when Nico reaches across his shoulder holding a knife about an inch from his chest. His skin starts to pulse and bruise, and boils and lesions form around were the knife is nearest. "Please remove your weapon."

Nico looks down at him; "But weren't you just about to say something about us not being able to kill you, or perhaps that we wouldn't or that we don't have it in us? Because I assure you, none of us here will hesitate to remove a threat to our friends or us." With that, Nico withdraws the blade and Beauclaire breaths with relief. The deputies are staring at Nico, hands on their guns. The other kids don't care, and the rest of us have grown used to stuff like that throughout the day yesterday.

"Why did you come here like this? What was the point of it?" Adam asks.

"I thought it was the least likely to result in a violent confrontation."

I have to reply to that one; "Good job at that! What, the weak little wife wouldn't be able to defend herself if you made sure the mighty wolves were sedated? Sexiest pig! I'll have you know, I've proven more than once I can handle myself in a fight without all the werewolf powers." After I say that, it dawns on me that for the first time, I let other people carry the combat while I just stayed back and watched. The weird smirk on his face would seem to indicate he noticed as well.

_'Let him smirk.'_ I hear Λύκος say in my mind, _'The less he thinks of you, the more power you will have if he attacks again, and I know him now."_

Beauclaire's smirk turns slightly to a frown, I think he noticed something, but can't figure out what, so I just smirk right back, let him guess.

"In any case," he begins again, "I was attempting to retrieve my father's walking stick. It is a fae artifact and should now belong to me if others didn't keep whisking it away."

Now Rachel steps in; "So, your father owned it once, why does that make you believe you should own it now? After all, it would be possible he gave it to another before he died. If that is the case, than it would belong to whoever he gave it to, or their descendants, not you. No, I think that if you truly owned it, you would have said that, and then said someone stole it." I notice that there is a faint green glow coming from her eyes with just a wisp of green smoke as well. Beauclaire is on edge, I don't think any of us would have caught that if Rachel hadn't pointed it out, and he knows that. "Do you truly wish to continue to live this night, you who is known as Beauclaire to many?"

"Yes." He's being hesitant, he has no clue what to expect from her.

"Then you shall repeat after me. When I say 'swear upon' you will say 'I swear upon' understood?" When he nods she continues; "Now, I know that you've never given anyone who is a mortal your true name, so for the purpose of this oath, when you say 'I' you will be revering to yourself and it shall be as binding as if you gave your true name. In a single word, answer yes or no to if you accept that?"

He hesitates, but says; "Yes."

"Good, now repeat after me; I do hear by swear that this entire conflict was my own doing and fault. I accept all blame and responsibility for said conflict, and any repercussions, obligations or penalties shall be mine alone to endure. I shall answer all questions put to me by those assembled here truthfully without attempt to disguise my meaning or deceive with wording. I will carry no grudge, and take no action now or in the future for what has transpired. Nor shall I allow others to do so. Nor shall either I or others take action against those of us assembled here, or the descendants of those assembled for any or no reason. A time, beyond time shall pass, than a time beyond time shall pass again and throughout this oath shall bind. Swear upon your power. Swear upon your standing with the fae. Swear upon the River Styx."

As he repeats each part, he's looking at her more strangely. Her eye glow becomes stronger has she goes on until it is practically green flames coming out her eyes, and I can't help but get the impression that something is feeding her information on what to say.

When he completes the oath, I can feel magic slam down on him, binding him in a way that I've never felt before, and I'm not sure he has either. He does not look confortable.

I go up to him; "I told you, the next time I talk to Coyote, I will ask him of the stick. I will make no promises beyond that. He is far more powerful than me, and should he choose to keep it, I can have no control. If he should decide to return it to me, I will need to have a way to contact you."

"I agree," he says, "but I think that this is not the time or place to discuss that." He nods to the other room, were the number of police has grown to eight or nine. "I shall arrange a way to contact me tomorrow."

"Very well, contact us tomorrow. We will arrange a meeting for a reasonable time to discuss things further, and to ask all those questions you get to answer now." Adam is smirking himself now, with that, he kicks the chain and salt away and cuts the bindings.

Standing up, Beauclaire looks around; "We seem to have caused some damage to your abode."

Adam looks at him; "WE! 'All blame and responsibility' remember?"

"Hah, yes. I assume then that I shall be setting up an account to reimburse you for damages? Talk to you later." With that he disappears.

Now, we get to deal with the police.


	19. Day Two Begins

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

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The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

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I'm going to be updating and cleaning up the previous chapters over the next week or so while still working on the story. So if an update comes along and there isn't a new chapter, that's what happened. If I accidently delete the story, you'll also know what happened.

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**Day Two Begins**

**Mercy**

It's ten in the morning, I'm late for work. Adam called Tad and told him he'd need to open the garage for me. He tried to convince me to stay home and sleep, but with all the activity there, and the construction people were just getting there to assess the damage when I left, I figured it be easier to sleep at the garage if I needed to. As I approach the door, I can hear Tad laying into someone. Tony is here as well, but so is someone else.

"I don't care who you are or who you work for, I'm not going to answer your damn questions. Now get off the property before I have you arrested."

"You've already said you're not the owner, so you can't have me arrested." The stranger says smoothly, but arrogantly, "There is nothing you can do but answer my damn quest…" He cuts off when he sees me. "Ah, Ms. Hauptman, it's…"

"Shut up you over blown wind bag. This is my garage its true, but you seem to have missed a few pointers in law school if you think that only a property owner can press charges on some one. No, don't bother trying to introduce yourself, I don't care. If you're trying to deliver a message, then YOU have failed. All responsibility is on your head and your lord and master will have to find another way. If you're not, and you serve no one else, then I really could care less about what you have to say. Now leave."

"Ms. Haup…"

'You know what, screw it, you were told by my employee to leave, you didn't, you're trespassing, I'm pressing charges. Tony, I know it's a bit of a come down for a detective, but could you please arrest him?"

Tony looks at me with a sigh and a grin, "Sure, come on buddy, everyone here as had enough of you already." With that, Tony grabs his arm and starts to walk him to his car calling a cruiser while doing so all the while the wind bag is yelling at him to let him go and other things, mostly unpleasant.

I look at Tad; "Sorry I'm late, who was that?"

Tad looks at me; "Reporter for some big newspaper in New York, I cut him off before he could try and impress me with his credentials. What time did the police finally leave last night?"

"About the same time that Beauclaire made his appearance in D.C. About six thirty for us, I'm just glad he timed it for morning rush in D.C. I hate to think what would have happened if he timed it for afternoon rush, they'd still be there. Why wasn't Tony helping you with the reporter?"

"Cops either hate arresting reporters, or they love it too much, either way, they always have problems afterwards. Besides, Tony was waiting for him to do something that crossed a line, I don't think he even knew Tony was a cop as he was already here waiting for you when the retard walked in. I take it you caught Beauclaire's show on TV this morning?"

"You mean the one where he appeared in the middle of rush hour right outside Congress with a host of fae warriors and announced he was sending an ambassador to Washington and thanked the government for recognizing the reservation as a separate country. I'm not sure if I appreciate him not giving credit to Adam for that one or not. I'm leaning to yes right now though. We got enough problems without that."

"You mean like Cantrip focusing on you now? What, don't look at me like that, you know full good and well that the State department is going to take over dealing with the fae after this, that leaves just werewolves for Cantrip to screw around with."

"Well, maybe the drinking and boating charges will stymie the local agents for a while." I notice that a cruiser is picking up the reporter and Tony is walking back to us. "That was quick, could you get what paper he works for, I want to add it to the growing list of groups who are not allowed to access any part of Adams interview this afternoon? By the way, what were you doing here?"

"I'll get if I can, but honestly, as that list's existence has already been made public, you can bet his company lawyer isn't going to be jumping in to help. As for the speed the cruiser showed up at, everyone's on edge after last night Mercy, your house isn't the only pack property we're watching. And no, WE are not watching werewolves, we're watching for strangers acting funny, there's already been a few minor incidents since the video went up yesterday. Combine that with a couple of really weird events, which is why I'm here, the whole pegasus thing, the unfolding tragedy in Atlanta, reporters riding our asses, you and Adam laying waste to a minor fae invasion, and you've got a recipe for major police over reaction to the slightest little thing. I take it you heard about the local cantrip agents, please tell me you guys didn't have anything to do with that."

"No we didn't, and yes I heard, The Columbia told us." He looks at me weird, and I realize that we never told him about her. "Anyway, what weird events bring you to my garage? I have to warn you though, I've had a very stressful night, and almost no sleep. And I'd actually like to be able to make some money today."

Before he can respond, I notice Tad stiffen in surprise. I turn around; "ZEE! Oh my god, Zee, it's so good to see you!"

"Ja Liebling, it is good to see you as well. And it is most wonderful to see my son here as well. Though for some reason, he seems more surprised than you." Zee's thick German accent was as hard to understand as always, but it was definitely him.

"What are you doing here Dad? Won't you get in trouble with the Gray Lords?"

"Nein! They have appointed me as their ambassador. By the deal he worked out with your congress, each reservation may send an ambassador to the largest nearby community, one to the state in which it resides, and a single ambassador for all four reservations to Washington DC, though there will be a staff there as well. This week, I'm to make contact with the local law enforcement and political leaders, then next, it's to the State House. I'm just for local and state, someone else is burdened with the Federal position, though I'm told that several other countries have petitioned the reservations for ambassadors as well."

"Any chance of that happening?" Tad asked, "You've had enough problems with just the US and cantrip, is there any chance they'll expand the problem?"

"That, my son, depends on what Beauclaire hopes to gain, and what deals he has to make with the other Grey Lords. I'd think that it will depend on how much resistance there is to our other deals we want with Congress as to whether or not we start making deals elsewhere. Now tell me, what has transpired this past day that has so completely altered the course that history seemed to be making?"

Tony looks at us now; "That's a really long story Mr. Adelbertsmiter, and unfortunately, there have been a few incidents yesterday and this morning that we need to deal with. The walking statues will undoubtedly become the work of unknown pranksters, likewise with the walking dead." Oh no, this is getting complicated again, Tony notices my face. "Yes Mercy, walking dead, just like the two fae assassins, though thankfully, neither as intelligent or violent, just gross. The officers had to tackle them and manhandle them into the paddy wagon. So far, there as only been three, but none of them were, ah, none of them were clean. If you take my meaning. We've already decided that those are going to be teenagers playing a prank on the out of towners who've shown up to see the pegasus at your place. Teenagers who are very lucky not to have been shot, but because of their age, names unreleased. Those are the things that we can 'Explain' to the press, though we'd like your expert opinion on them, if the reality will be worse, we'd like to know now. Is this just a result of the release of power? Because the most important issue, the one we're trying to keep from EVERYONE, especially cantrip and the media, is the dead man who returned to life yesterday. Plus a few things like birds and other animals acting strangely, you know, the whole apocalypse lead up thing we seem to have developed since yesterday."

"Returned to life?" Oh boy, a religious movement we do not need.

"Yep. A clinically dead man, was found late last night in the morgue. He claimed he woke up on the table in the morning, but couldn't get out as the morgue doors lock from both directions for some reason. Reasons that I'm suddenly very curious of, but I digress. The man was suffering from only mild hypothermia with no other injuries or conditions. He had been very dead the night before."

"Is there any chance that the doctors just made a mistake?" Tad asks.

"Not unless you can figure out how to mistake a decapitation for just being asleep. Thankfully, he was declared dead on the scene, so the number of people who know are limited, but this is an issue that's not going to just go away." Depends on how frightened the various supernatural critters in the area are of the implications I think to myself, and at a glance, I'm pretty sure both Tad and Zee are thinking the same thing. Heck, from his tone of voice, I'd be surprised if Tony hadn't thought it. "He's currently in the hospital being treated. His wife was injured in the accident that killed him, so we're hoping she didn't see the body, their daughter is only six months old, she won't know anything."

Zee joins the conversation; "Any other family that had been notified?"

"In the military. We've already called them and told them we got the identities of the survivors and deceased mixed up, so the Army Chaplin will be explaining that her brother was just knocked unconscious, that he didn't die. No, the problems are all going to be from police, morgue employees and the man himself. Hopefully we can contain this, but again, we need the help of someone we can trust who's used to dealing with magic. I know that you've been keeping secrets Mercy, that became apparent when you changed right in front of me. But damn it, I've no idea who we CAN trust on anything like this. Can we trust Nico?"

"You can trust me when I say this Tony, there ISN'T anyone you can trust on this. I'm a little more trustworthy than most for this, but even me, I have to look out for the pack. Keep a tight lid on this Tony, find excuses to arrest people if you have to, just keep this quite. As for Nico, I'm not really sure, if his duty is to insure the wheel of life and death continues unabated, than he might very well return him to the ground, remember his comment about vampires being an aberration in the cycle of life and death? We do need to tell him about the walking dead though. Or did they already return?"

"NO, they haven't. We have them stowed in a little used wing of the precinct, but with all the hubbub going on right now, I'm not sure how long that can keep. Plus, it weirds the fuck out of everyone, including me, it's like an opening episode of a living dead TV show. And we'd all like a little reassurance that it can be dealt with successfully before it spirals out of control. As it stands, we're getting the police psychologist in on the secret so she can treat the officers who had to tackle them without locking them up for seeing walking dead in the first place. I don't suppose you know of any psychologists who are used to dealing with supernatural events?"

"Ask Sam, he'd be able to tell you a lot more than I can about something like that. Heck, I've been making Jokes with Adam for years about him getting one for the pack."

"Could you call him now? We really need to get this done. If need be, we'll hire you, you're already on the list as an acceptable on call expert with anything supernatural."

I pull out my phone and dial Sam, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be making any money today, though I'm going to be earning my keep. I go through the whole spiel about the doctor being with a patient and leaving a message when someone takes the phone from the receptionist. "Mercy, is that you? Did something happen at the house?" It's Darryl.

"Darryl? What are you doing at the doctors?" He actually doesn't sound well either.

"Migraine headache that won't go away. Sam's in with another patient right now, did something happen at the house?"

"No, not that I'm aware, I'm at the garage, Tony is here and I was going to ask Sam a question on behalf of the local police, it's important, but not urgent, so ask him to call when he has a moment before a non-critical patient."

He pauses for a moment; "Do I even want to know? And would you telling me increase my headache, or distract me from it?"

"I think that the answer to the first and last of your questions is a resounding no, but a firm yes to your second. Just pass along the message and apologize to the nice receptionist after I hang up." I hang up before he can ask another question, mean, but hey, I've had a rough day yesterday, and today isn't looking better.

Next I dial Adam, only to have Jesse answer; "Adam Hauptman's phone, oh, hi Mercy, do you need this to be a private call, dad's driving right now, driver safety you know?"

"Please ask your father if he knew that Darryl was at the doctors?"

I can hear Adams reply just fine; "Yes Mercy, when Auriele arrived with the social workers she told me that he had called in sick to work and that he was going to Sam's to be looked at. It's the first time I've ever heard of a werewolf suffering from anything other than a combat injury or silver poisoning, so I had no issue with it. I did call Sam and ask him to call with details afterwards. How did you find out?"

"Oh, Tony's here, I had a couple of questions to ask Sam about what he thought on the second coming of the lord, walking dead, animated statues and animals acting weird. Hey Tony, how were the animals acting weird, we never got to that point?" Sometimes it's fun to make Adam squirm a little.

Tony just shakes his head; "A bunch of owls were seen flying around during the day, hooting in a manner that rather reminded everyone who saw of song birds, and all the police horses we use for mounted patrols were seen dancing around and generally acting funny. There were a couple other lesser things, but those two stand out the most."

Adam sounds strained for some reason; "Mercy, where are you at right now?"

"The garage, Tony, Tad and Zee are with me, Zee's been appointed the ambassador to the State and local level." Hey, this is how I deal with stress.

Just as Adam starts to reply, we become aware of another presence. I quickly shush Adam and glance up to see another werewolf, a stranger.


	20. Penguins

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

**00088888000**

The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

**00088888000**

I'm going to be updating and cleaning up the previous chapters over the next week or so while still working on the story. So if an update comes along and there isn't a new chapter, that's what happened. If I accidently delete the story, you'll also know what happened.

**00088888000**

**Penguins**

**Percy**

Well, we've survived twenty four hours on this screwed up world that seems so close to our own. Mr. Hauptman, Adam, and his wife Mercy and his daughter Jesse just left, Mercy to her business, Adam and his daughter to pick up his ex-wife, but not until some people from his security firm show up. I wonder if this is going to be as awkward in the house tonight as it is at dad's palace when I visit, probably. In any case, Mercy didn't leave until Auriele showed up with the two child welfare workers; Mss. Dounters, and Ms. Macktiem. Supposedly, they are both part fae, so we can be a bit more free with our information than we were yesterday. Not that that is going to happen, but we can if we want.

I'm antsy, I was cleaning up the kitchen out of boredom, but Adam told me not to. He wanted to get an estimate for the cost so he could bill Beauclaire for it. The house has a workout area with a decent weight set, so Annabeth, Nico and me start working out until the three show up, while Terry was working on something with Rachel, hopefully a smaller caliber gun. I had another talk with her about last night and basically I suggested a smaller, less powerful weapon. I can understand her desire to be able to take down enemies, Hades; her defense of the bridge was awe inspiring when you consider that there was no one older than twelve with her, and it was one of the few points I never had to reinforce. That was mostly due to her guns, and I'm loathe to take that pride, or the potential firepower, away. But something needed to be done before there was a major incident.

When the three ladies show up, we quickly shower, the Hauptman's have several full sized bathrooms, thankfully, they still have water, and we go meet them. About the time that we're getting out of the shower, Mercy is leaving and some workers are showing up to do an assessment on the cost of repairs, so we move a picnic table out into the yard a ways away for some privacy.

We retell our story from the day before, not really adding any details that we haven't already told them. At some point, Hestia and Julius appear, Dr. Cornick had evidently gone off to his clinic, or the hospital, to earn his paycheck.

We decide to barbecue again, after all, we do need to use up the meat in the coolers. When we're preparing the food, Annabeth starts to pull some stuff out of her purse to help with the food. Unfortunately, one of the things she pulls out has something extra attached, specifically, a penguin which she promptly drops.

We're all just sitting there staring at this thing, watching it's threat display, wondering were in Hades it came from. "Ah, Featherhead, why did you pack penguins for the trip? I know we're trying to be more prepared in case of emergencies, but penguins?"

"Funny Percy, funny. I did not pack penguins in my purse. I have no idea how penguins got there, or how they… The dream! Percy, remember the dream? There's a boy in my purse who can control penguins. We need to get him out." At that she reaches in and then pulls out her empty hand. "Why didn't that work?"

Terry takes the purse and looks in. "We should go inside, the magic feels somewhat funny, like something's changed."

The four of us, Annabeth, Nico, Terry and myself as well as Julius, grab our combat gear that we carry with us all the time and get ready to enter, while the three werewolves, Auriele, Ben and Eric as well as the two part fae women just stare at us.

Auriele talks first, I think it's a rank issue; "Just what do you mean, go inside? Are you planning on all entering her purse?"

At her comment, I remember that she wasn't here for that part of our story yesterday. "It's bigger on the inside."

She looks at us; "There is no way I'm allowing you to go in there." She tries to use her authority as mate to the pack second, but it doesn't work on us, which quickly becomes evident. I can see her start to get mad, but Ben catches her eye and just shakes his head in some sort of sign. I can see her frown at him, and he quickly looks away, but his message has been sent. "Fine, you'll need some sort of escort though, no way am I going to explain to Adam why I let you kids get killed on your own."

Rachel looks at her; "You'll need to stay out here yourself, unless all three of you go, in which case there will be no werewolves out here guarding the house with workers present. I'm not sure if the men from Hauptman Security will count for that or not. But if I understand pack dynamics, you can't leave Eric and Ben alone together when the higher ranking one is injured, and for the same reason, you can't just leave Eric here alone or alone with us. And Percy, the penguin is getting away."

I grab a piece of meat and run over to the penguin, I can communicate with it. "Stop, you're not leaving just yet."

_"Why not?"_

I grab it by the beak; "Because I said so." I put as much authority as I can into it. Penguins are creatures of the ocean. They may live on land, but they can't fly, and depend entirely on the water for survival, if it wasn't for caring for their eggs, they'd never leave the water. It works, but the bird feels weird to me, like it's more powerful than it should be. "Hey Rachel, Annabeth, do you think a normal animal would have been improved like we were yesterday?"

Rachel looks at me; "Sure, I was, and not just the other side of me, but the human side as well. In point of fact, the human portion gained more than my other side, which by the way, was less than you guys."

Auriele breaks in; "Yes, your understanding is basically correct. I could go, taking Eric and leaving Ben outside, but then I'd be leaving him here alone with the human workers, you and this young lady," with a glance at Hestia.

I decide to be nice when I correct her; "Hestia is quite capable of defending herself, as well as this house, all on her own."

She looks at Eric and Ben; "Ben, you escort them inside, you speak Greek, Ms. Dare is correct, I need to stay out here." She's NOT happy about that.

Ms. Macktiem walks over; "How about a seventh person? Consider it a prerogative of child welfare, we need to establish the character of the family and home life, and insure the safety of the children, so one of us is going to have to go. I'm better at fighting, call me Lilly."

"You got a weapon there Lilly?" I notice Ben has Λύκος in his hand. In response, she silently pulls out of nowhere, a silvery sword about the size and shape of a machete, but duel edged. "Ok, let's go."

At that, Annabeth jumps towards the purse and disappears inside, I quickly follow. Not really sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't a giant circus tent filled to capacity with warehouse shelving. I appear in midair and start to fall, but something unseen grabs me and lowers me to the ground. I look up, and I can see Auriele looking in from an opening in the top of the tent. It's not as I expected, a giant eye looking down from on high, but rather just like you'd see in the mundane world if a human looked down from an opening in a circus tent.

Kind of hinky when you consider the fact that her head is larger than the opening on the outside, but I've long ago given up trying to figure out the weirdness of magic. Looking around, I can see just how prepared Annabeth was for this trip. We are literally in a warehouse filled with personal effects, and equipment and supplies. It's like being in the warehouse for a demi-gods version of Gander Mountain. There are crates of everything from underwear to armor, food to nectar, one dollar bills to gold bullion (as well as drachma) and there were penguins walking around everywhere.

I was clear that this place had been trashed, just like the house had been by our arrival, but the unseen force, or forces, had tidied up quite a bit. Lilly is checking out a makeshift aquarium filled with sea water and various types of fish while Ben was looking at a crate of money; "Well, at least you kids aren't poor."

Annabeth just sighs; "Except that all of it is counterfeit here in this world. It was printed on another earth, it's not valid here. We don't even know if the same presidents are on the bills. If they are, we can use them if the government turns nasty, but until then, let's not."

Terry is looking in a crate of drachma; "This has changed to True Gold, or Imperial Gold Nico. All these metals have changed, Blessed Silver, Celestial Bronze, forge, I bet even the paper has become some sort of divine stationary, I could build an arsenal with this." There is an arsenal in here I think.

"In other words," I say, "we can't spend it either. Let's just deal with the penguins." At that, I look down at one of the penguins; "Hey there buddy, where'd you come from?"

_"Over there lord, we came in through that hole over there. We're looking for food, our friend is outside, he's lost and can't find his way home, so we're trying to help him. Do you have any food?"_

"Yes, we do, but first, we need to find your friend." I notice Ben and Lilly looking at me weird; "What, I can talk to sea creatures. Let's go."

We follow the penguins out the hole, Annabeth is not happy about that. When we get outside, we see a vast panorama before us. Our tent, stretches up to the sky until it seems to merge with the grayness and shadow. There are no stars or any other light source, yet there is plenty of light to see by, even if all the color seems muted by darkness, yet still perfectly lit. The ground looks sort of like a dark, greyish sort of sand.

Nico looks around; "This is how shadow travel is supposed to look."

Just about a quarter of a mile away, we can see about fifty giant metal columns rising into the sky, and like our tent, they merge with the shadow above. The penguins march off in that direction, so we follow them.

As we approach, we can see a door on the side of one of the columns. The penguins are heading right for it, and I notice lots of tracks (mostly penguin) outside leading to the door. When we get there, we can see that there is some sort of lock, with something written in Greek next to it. Terry quickly steps up, and in a few seconds, she has the door open.

We go inside to what looks like a bedroom, filled with various nick nacks and equipment. Terry notices a picture and shouts; "Holy Hephaestus, this is one of our bedrooms at cabin nine! We need to check the others, there might be someone inside one of them!"

Before she can run out to check the other cabins, Annabeth grabs her arm; "Terry, look! The tracks lead up to that bookshelf and disappear, that means a door. Let's follow the tracks to the kid we KNOW is inside this one."

Ben walks up to the bookcase and looks for something to open it, but before he can do anything, it slides open on its own. Jumping back away, Ben prepares for an attack, but the penguins just waddle thru, telling me that their friend is thru the door. We walk into another bedroom, and another, passing thru Terry's room, causing her some embarrassment, both for the state of the room, a severe mess, as well as several poster sized pictures of Nico mixed in with posters of her favorite bands and Olympian idols. She's also not too pleased to realize that all the bedrooms in her cabin had two secret doors leading to the adjoining bedrooms. Not that she can complain too much, most the other cabins have barracks style set ups, even the Aphrodite cabin goes with that, just really nice beds. Most don't even segregate the boys from the girls.

After about the tenth room, we hear voices on the other side of a door, now we prep for battle. As the door opens and the penguins start to enter. Hey, how are the penguins opening the doors? I lean down to ask one when I hear a young child scream. I look up just in time to see what look like Egyptian hieroglyphs appear in midair for a second, and then I'm body slammed into the far wall hard enough to dent the wall.

Annabeth rushes over to me, holding up a shield to block further magic's (I'm actually unhurt) and Terry takes a place at the door frame preparing to fire her gun. Before anything else can happen, we hear someone else shouting for us to hold, and for the boy, around five or six, named Felix, to stop. We look inside, there's a second boy, about twelve or thirteen, wearing a Camp Half-blood t-shirt (not that he couldn't have grabbed one out of a dresser), holding a bow (with a nocked arrow) and bearing the symbol of Apollo. "Percy?"

I walk to the door and look in; "You look familiar, I'm sorry, but I don't know all the names of everyone in your cabin."

He looks only a little crestfallen, like he knew I wouldn't, but was hoping I would; "Michal Evenstead, Mike, and this is Felix, he's not one of us, though he has power of his own, as you've seen. I'm not really sure what happened, are you here to rescue us? I think it was yesterday, we were helping Jake go outside, will noticed he forgot something in Jakes room, so I went back inside to get it. Next thing I know, I'm feeling sick, floating around like I'm weightless, then, what seems like an eternity later, I fall to the floor. When I get up, I'm looking at myself, but not in a mirror, then all my powers erupt and Jakes room is nearly destroyed, but the explosion popped the doors to the other rooms, I explore the rooms until I find the way outside, but it's not outside-outside, but some weird alien outside. I use my power to create better light, it doesn't help much, but it attracted the attention of this kid and his army of penguins, we've been searching for food ever since then. And I can't seem to make any of the doors back to the cabin itself work." Mike is blabbering with relief, I don't blame him.

Annabeth looks over at me; "We need to get these kids back to the house, and then come up with some way to check out the rest of this place for other people. These two can't be the only ones who were trapped here when we traveled."

"I know, but I can't think of anything we can do to help. Maybe Mr. Hauptman will know something or someone who can. Maybe Hestia? In any case, let's go back to our new home. Get your stuff people, we're leaving."


	21. Girl Talk

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

**00088888000**

The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

**00088888000**

I'm going to be updating and cleaning up the previous chapters over the next week or so while still working on the story. So if an update comes along and there isn't a new chapter, that's what happened. If I accidently delete the story, you'll also know what happened.

**00088888000**

Sorry for the chintzy chapters. For the most part they're just fillers to get the story from one place to the next, with a little extra added in case I wright additional stories for this line.

**00088888000**

I screwed up the age of Felix. 'The Kane Chronicles Survival Guide' places him as nine. For some reason I was thinking he was only five or six. Nine or ten work better for me, so I'll be changing the age in previous chapters eventually. Sorry people, my bad.

**00088888000**

**Girl Talk**

**Mercy**

Standing right in front of us is a werewolf, an unknown werewolf. "May we help you?" I ask, I notice his gaze is set nearly straight down, almost looking at his shoes. Either he's really angry and trying to get it under control, or he really doesn't want to challenge anyone. Since none of us are werewolves, that's very unusual.

"I'm looking for a place to be." He said, "Names Zack, I tried to call the local Alpha's house, but all I got was an answering service. When I called the second's house, I got the same thing and at the third's." He glances at Tony, and I can see him edit what he was going to say, "When I finally get a hold of someone, she tells me to head here. I'm low rank, bottom of the pack, and I don't cause no trouble. I just wanted to make myself known, and then be on my way."

"That's not going to happen." Adam says over the phone, "I'm about to pick someone up at the airport, than I'm on my way over. Wait there. Mercy, get some more information from Tony, I'll be there shortly."

I repeat what Adam said for Tony, everyone else could hear him fine. I turn to Zack, "You know anything about cars, even just enough to be a tool monkey?"

"Sorry ma'am, I barely understand how to drive the damn things. As for fixing them, they might a'swell be flying carpets for what I could do. I'm good at menial work, anything that's require some sort of schooling is beyond me."

Tad eye's him; "How are you at lifting things? If you're any good at that, we could use the help, Mercy's crane is acting fussy, and since it's looking like Mercy here is going to be gone for the day, as well as my father, than I'm going to be stuck working alone and could use the help. Doubly so if you can answer phone calls at…" he sees me shake my head, "never mind that, how about heavy lifting?"

"I can do lifting just fine, as well as basic assembly a'slong as you show me what goes where. But I don't need no charity, I prefer to make my own way. If's it right with you ma'am, I'd rather be on my way after the alpha arrives."

I raise my eyebrows at him, but it's Tony who answers, "To bad! Look, there's too much going on in town right now for anyone to be screwing up. Lots of rather trigger happy people at this moment. Since I've become aware of a wider community of supernatural critters than other cops are, I think I can safely say that that extends to those same supernatural critters. I cannot even begin to explain how desperately I want to avoid any paranormal fubar right now. I really need you to just accept the charity of the local werewolf pack, and lay the fuck low for a while."

I look at Tony and everyone else; "I'm taking a nap people, Tad, I'm transferring the phone to your cell so I can sleep in the backroom of the office. Wake me when Adam gets here. I assume you can handle it if a werewolf goes berserk?"

"Yes mother Mercy, between Dad and I, we can protect Tony and the rest of the city from Zack. Go sleep before you decide to kill someone just for spite."

As I head into the backroom, I can hear Tad explaining to Zack how stressful the proceeding day has been and why he really wants to be careful with Adam when he arrives. I get to the room where I keep my bed. It's not a normal bed, last Christmas, Jesse got me a joke gift that really is a lot more practical than I think she realized. I look at the doggy bed and transform. I wiggle out of my clothes and take a nap coyote style.

I wake up a couple of hours later with Adam laughing at me. He's sitting in my office chair and laughing. "I thought that Jesse's suggestion that you put that here was a joke. I should have known you'd actually do it." I sniff, Adam is the only one here right now, but Jesse was here only a couple of minutes ago. She probably came in here to wake me, and busted out with the giggles. Oh well, at least she knows I'm actually using her gift. I lay my head back down and cover my hears with my paws, letting Adam know I want to go back to sleep. "Come on Mercy, I've been here an hour already. Tony left shortly after you went to sleep, and Tad and Zee have been filling me in on what happened today. When I called Tony's phone, I told him we'd be at the police station they're keeping the, uh, the guests tonight after my interview. After that, Sam wants to talk to us, and I'm pretty sure I know about what. He also called you back a while ago, Zee talked to him, told him what Tony wanted, he said he'd make some calls. There are a couple of werewolf psychologists, but he's not sure if they're interested in moving here. Come on, Christy has been waiting oh so patiently," I can hear the lie in that; "and you can take a shower at home before dinner and going to stop the invasion of the living dead."

I get up, reluctantly, and start to walk out, pointing my nose at my clothes, and then at a handbag I keep with spare clothes, and head out to the car still in coyote form. I can hear Christy chatting with Zee, Tad and Zack, it's clear that they're being polite, but only Zack seams to really like her, and even that I'm not sure about. Adam heads out to the work area to collect Christy and Zack, Zee said he'd help Tad out the rest of the day, and then head to the police station around seven.

When I get outside, Jesse is sitting in the SUV, with the all the doors opened, so I nudge the front passenger door closed, and jump in the back and then crawl to the front, locking the door when I get settled. I see Jesse suppressing a giggle, and yes, I'm aware that courtesy should have the guest up front, but in coyote form, I'm even more aware of rank issues than in human form. I'm the alpha's mate, not Christy.

When they come out, I see Christy give a start of surprise when she sees me, Adam just grins. Zack climbs in the back as Adam 'helps' Christy into the seat next to Jesse. As we're driving home, Christy starts to talk about how considerate she was in waiting for me to wake up, with the implied insult that I wasn't considerate at all. If Jesse hadn't been in the car, I would have transformed and laid into her about all the crap she put Jesse and Adam through, and then rode the rest of the way home in the nude, just to annoy her. But she is in the car, so I don't. Instead, I stick my paw on that nice electric window opener and roll the window down so I can stick my head out.

After all these years, I finally get a decent chance to do this, and a wonderful excuse as well, I'm not going to pass it up. Jesse busts out in the giggles, again, Christy sputters, and Zack looks almost whimsical. Adam just laughs; "You're going to eat a bug if you keep that up." I look at him, wag my tail, and stick my head back out snapping my teeth occasionally like I'm trying to catch bugs. This really is fun, there's something in the hindbrain of canines that gets canines of all stripes going about this, I can see now why almost all dogs that get the chance do it.

When we get back to the house, there is a security check point set up at the driveway. Adam pulls up and checks with the guard. While they're talking, another guard walks up with a Doberman, the first guard is just starting to say that they don't need to check the boss's car for explosives when the dog jumps up to with his front paws on the side of my door so he can look down at me. Before the handler can finish yelling down, I snarl at him, putting a little of the authority of the alpha's mate behind it. The dog almost instantly drops down and rolls over, belly up. As the handler is staring at me, I sit back in an upright position, and ignore him. The other guard is laughing as Adam pulls away.

As we pull up to the house, I notice that the workers have left already. That confuses me for a bit until I remember that they were only checking the place out so they could give an estimate. As we get out, I can hear Percy arguing with someone, the replying voice sounds very young. What the hell?!

We walk in, Adam holding the door open for me, so I'm in the lead when I come nose to beak with a penguin. I stop dead in my tracks, what the fuck?! Everyone behind has stopped as well, Adam isn't even growling, he's too surprised.

Suddenly, Percy yells; "Get back out here, now!" And the penguin gives a squawk of fright, and goes running back to Percy. Fatigue forgotten, I head out to see what's going on. When I get outside, I can see a couple of new additions to our growing collection of oddballs. The first is a boy, probably preteen, wearing a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. He's blonde, athletic, good looking for a boy. I get the impression that girls are one day going to be swooning over him, assuming they aren't already.

The other boy is about eight or nine years old. He's wearing a t-shirt that says 'Penguins are Cool' as well as several pieces of jewelry that look Egyptian in origin. He's arguing with Percy about keeping the penguins, he wants them, Percy's trying to tell him that it's not his choice and that the penguins would die here anyway.

I look around, in addition to the kids, there are the two child welfare ladies, Hestia, Julius, Auriele, Ben and Eric. My head snaps back to Ben and Eric, Eric is seated at the picnic table with Ben, standing up and leaning on the edge of the table behind him. Auriele is clearly at the edge of her patience, she's the mate of the pack second, she normally dominates any of the kids she teaches. In all her years of teaching, she's never had a kid that she couldn't control. Until today. I'm left with the impression that the only reason she wasn't being completely ignored was the habit of respect for adults the kids seemed to have, and the simple fact that they knew they were guests here.

Adam steps out; "ENOUGH! What is going on in my house? Why are there penguins here? Why are there yet more kids? And what happened that Ben has gained a position of dominance over Eric? Did I not say last night that I would allow no challenges until he was completely healed?"

Percy gives a sigh of relief, Ben, Eric and Auriele look startled, like whatever happened, they didn't think would upset Adam, I also notice Λύκος shift from Ben's wrist to Adam's, why did Ben have Λύκος? Several of the kids are looking at me, I'm pretty sure they recognize me, though only Rachel and Hestia don't seem surprised.

Before anyone can respond, Christy, who had been waiting in the living room for the penguins to be dealt with lets out a shriek; "What happened to my beautiful kitchen?! What happened?"

I turn around, Christy is standing in the ruins of MY kitchen, mouth hung open, in a state of shock. Adam sighs but remains silent. It's Hestia that responds to her; "YOUR kitchen? I was under the impression that this house, and by extension, its kitchen, belonged to Mr. and Mss. Hauptman. The man you betrayed and the woman you forfeited your place too. THEY, have decided to do some renovations."

Now it's our turn to stare in shock, all of us. Christy looks at the seemingly young girl and coldly; "Who are YOU?!"

A wave of power slaps against me, coming from Hestia. "I am the goddess of Hearth and Home, Protector of Families, Guardian of Children, and Enemy of all who Betray their Household! I am Hestia, firstborn of Kronos, eldest of the gods and Keeper of Flame. I predate all of your recorded history, so take care Ms. Christy, this household has taken in those I am fond of, so I have vowed to defend them. Even from threats they do not recognize."

Dead silence reigns, Terry, Rachel, Annabeth and the new blonde boy are down on one knee around her, while Julius, Percy and Nico have taken up positions behind and flanking her, clearly her guards. Penguin boy is just staring along with the rest of us.

It's Adam that breaks the silence; "Auriele, Jesse, please show Christy to her bedroom suite in the east wing, Mr. di Angelo, please show the two new boys to the suite they'll be sharing with you, Mercy, go take a shower while I try and figure out what happened. I need to have a talk with several people." Yeah, you do.

Rachel follows me up the stairs, and I can hear Christy suggesting that the upstairs bedrooms would be better for her. Auriele would clearly like to give in, but Adam gave her a direct order, and Jesse starts to explain that all the upstairs bedrooms are in use and that the suites have their own bathrooms.

Rachel follows me into the bedroom; "Mss. Hauptman, can we talk about something?" I'm still a coyote as I walk into the bathroom. She doesn't follow me in, but she does sit on the floor right outside, back against the door frame.

I shift forms; "You know, most people like to be alone when they shower or go to the bathroom." I say it a touch of irritation, but not much, I've grown used to the idea of pack members needing to talk at odd times.

"Really?! I've almost never been alone in the shower! Growing up at home, I always had servants or a nanny attending me, and when I started going to school, it was usually a boarding school with common multi person showers. At camp, my cave doesn't have a shower, so I either bathe in the bay, or use the showers at the work out area."

"Well, thanks for at least giving me some privacy."

"Not a problem that. It's actually one of the things that startled me about camp, the utter and complete lack of privacy. Everything is multi person, and nearly everything is coed, even the toilets, though they at least have barriers between them."

"The camp has coed showers? Sounds like you guys will have no problems adjusting to life with a werewolf pack. What exactly do you need?"

"Being attended by female servants when I shower or sharing with girls is one thing, taking a shower in an open area where everyone can see is, well it's an experiance. I'd like to talk to you about Annabeth and Terry, I think someone needs to talk to them about some things, and it's almost going to have to be you."

I groan; "Like what?"

"Well, Terry really needs to come to grips with her Indian side. When we were talking yesterday, I noticed you seemed accepting of her dislike of that part of her, like you understood it. Yet at the same time, you've gotten a hold of your dislike, and learned about it. Terry needs to do that, especially in this world, I saw that in a vision. You're the only one here who can help her with that."

"I'm not the only one, but I can understand you thinking so, there are a few other Indians who are werewolves."

"Ah, but did they go through the whole rejection thing you and your mother went through? Plus, they're werewolves, you're something native, that gives your words more clout in this. Though admittedly, that might actually hurt this, but I think it'd be better in the long run. If nothing else, you seem to have contacts with the native spirits slash gods, maybe you can run interference between her and them, preventing them from being too insulted until she can come to grips with it."

"Well, I need to talk to Coyote anyway, maybe he'll help, or Thunderbird, he'd be better. I'll ask around with a few Indian contacts, in general, I'm really not the one you want teaching someone about our culture. What's up with Annabeth?"

"Uh, that one is a little more, uh, personal in nature. No, I don't have a crush on her or anything like that. But she's been acting weird lately, trying to keep Percy, and I can SEE that in the long run, it's going to do just the opposite."

Great; "Um, this REALLY isn't my strong suit here, that seems like something you should do. She seems to listen to you." Please, not me.

"Can't, until a couple of months ago, I was competition for Percy myself, along with every single female at camp. However much she listens to me, however friendly we've become, there is a part of her that regards me as a rival. On this, she won't listen. She managed to win the heart of the most popular person in camp, but doesn't quite know how, and she's now in the process of ruining it."

"How about you explain that a bit better."

"Annabeth absolutely sucks with dealing with her emotions. In that, she very much takes after her mother. Wisdom my ass! She started to fall for Percy when she was eleven, back before Percy was popular, and he her. That would be great, except she just doesn't deal well with emotions, at all. Shortly before her thirteenth birthday, she actually considered joining the Hunters of Artemis, to forever remain a young girl, denied love and affection for eternity. Or until she can't help it anymore and Artemis turns her into a bear for the other girls to hunt down and skin, and she spends the rest of eternity as a blanket. That's how well Annabeth deals with emotion."

"So, anyway, before she actually commits to the hunters, she gets kidnapped by a monster who also kidnaps Artemis herself. Percy, defies several gods, fate, and prophecy, and goes on a quest without anyone's permission, to rescue Artemis and Annabeth. While doing so, he saves the life of a creature that should anyone kill, will give them the power to destroy society, rescues the two, gets in a fight with a Titan and manages to trounce him and returns the hero. About this time, Annabeth figures out that she's head over heels in love, and cannot deny it anymore. She manages to remain steady until after the Titan War is over."

"After the war though, she starts to have problems again. EVERYONE in camp is after Percy! At least once a week he has to fend off attempts by charm speakers like Drew who are trying to take him away. Even without that, all the girls are constantly trying to get him to talk to them. Well, not Clarisse, but she used to be his rival and her dad has tried to kill him several times, and even she would jump his bones given the chance. She'd feel guilty about betraying her friend Annabeth, but she'd still do it. Add in several gay guys throwing their advances into the mix and you've got a recipe for a relationship disaster."

I interrupt before she can go on; "When you said charm speakers were using their powers on Percy, is there any chance they were using it on her?"

"Probably, likely even. It'd explain the quickness of her coming to a breakdown, but not completely. She's recently started to do things to try and keep Percy, things that are often times completely at odds with what attracted him to her in the first place. I'm afraid she's either going to wake up one day and find Percy has falling out of love with her, or he'll grow so accustomed to what she's doing he'll start to take it for granted and she'll wake up and find she's wasted her life."

"Please talk to her, I care for both of them very much and don't want either of them hurt." With that, she gets up and leaves.

I finish my shower and sit down on my bed. I'm planning on getting dressed and going downstairs, but instead, I fall asleep. Maybe I'll actually get some rest now?


	22. A Delay

Unavoidable delay. The reality of work has reared its ugly head, and in order to continue to receive a paycheck from week to week, I must now go on a hotshot and will not have access to a computer (or the time to write) for about a week.

Sorry.


	23. A Little More Filler

Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

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The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

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I'm going to be updating and cleaning up the previous chapters over the next week or so while still working on the story. So if an update comes along and there isn't a new chapter, that's what happened. If I accidently delete the story, you'll also know what happened.

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Not really sure were the dislike of Percy/Annabeth came from, but to me, people trying to win Percy to them is a fairly logical outcome to events in the story. People using charm speak if they have it is likewise. Heck, not all of them would actually be trying to take Percy; some of them could be using their gift to give Annabeth 'Advice' on her relationship. It'd be like someone who has several hypnotic suggestions that conflict with each other, and she's never been portrayed in cannon as being all that emotionally steady to begin with, one of the reasons I actually like her, she's far more flawed than some people seem to think.

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Take note people, not everything said by people in my stories is entirely accurate, or even truthful. They make mistakes; have bad impressions and misconceptions, personal agendas, and or a desire, for whatever reason, to mislead those they are talking to.

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Pet Peeve alert; what is it with people describing Percy in stories set after 'The Last Olympian' as lanky and awkward? For the past several years, he's engaged in daily workouts and combat training. He's been trained to deal with his ADHD by doing exercise. He's specifically described as being fairly buff in the books. To get an idea for what Percy and Annabeth would look like, watch the extras on the 'Man of Steel' DVD. The one about the workouts the actors went through. Percy would look like superman with less facial hair, or Captain America, and Annabeth would look like the female Kryptonian, in other words, they'd look ripped.

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Does anyone know what Auriele and Daryl's last name is? Or were I might look for it? Ditto for Felix.

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And yes, I know this chapter is kind of lame and nearly completely lacking in dialogue, but I needed to move the story along. I've also hit a branch in the story that I'm not entirely sure which way I'm going to take. And As I decided that, I also wrote out a one shot story that I've had on my mind for a little while. Hope you guys like that one.

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**A Little More Filler**

**Adam**

As the people walk off on their errands, I attempt to remain calm. "Auriele, what exactly happened here?" At the same time I ask, Λύκος starts sending me visions of what it 'Saw' to me.

"I apologize for the mess of things here, I'm still not even a hundred percent sure what happened. I can say that in regards to Ben and Eric, Eric formally ceded his position in the pack to Ben, without a challenge from Ben."

I look at Eric; "Is that true Eric? If so, why?"

"Yes sir, it is." Eric said looking away; "I just can't deal with some of the crap going on lately sir. Ben was willing, without flinching or hesitating, to jump into a magical purse that was specifically, according to those who know magic, malfunctioning, to track down the source of penguins it was releasing. I just can't deal with things like that. I figured I could reduce the violence inside the pack by stepping aside gracefully. Both of us will undoubtedly have several challenges, but it'll reduce the number I think. And I've been thinking of moving on to a more traditional pack anyway. Sorry"

At this I sigh, it's been coming for a while; I'm actually surprised it took this long. We talk some more, it all amounts to 'I'm sorry to see you leave' and Auriele seems both a little smug as well as saddened over this. She's one of the traditionalists who doesn't like a lot of the changes I've been making, but doesn't want the pack to fall apart either.

As we're talking, the rest of the kids wander back out, we're cooking again, Christy makes a brief appearance, but it quickly becomes evident that these kids are not to her liking. They're hyperactive to a degree that's nearly breath taking. In discussing the events inside the purse, it comes out that Percy, who was prepping for combat, actually paused to ask a penguin a question, right at the start of the encounter, and none of the kids see an issue with that. I have a pretty good idea of what actually happened thanks to Λύκος, but some of the details elude both of us.

It turns out that Annabeth didn't even know the extent of the items in her purse, much less the hole in the side leading to a pocket realm. It's decided that the passage between universes caused massive amounts of damage and that at some point, the barriers between her purse and the purses and bags of the other kids in her cabin that one were ripped apart. That combined with the whole increased power thing ended up duplicating a lot of stuff, or, as in the case of the fish, a whole bunch of stuff was simply created by their power explosion.

I'm actually glad about it happening there. The house received enough damage as it was, adding that much more wouldn't have helped. After that the unseen inhabitants of the purse went about repairing the place as best they could as well as reshelfing everything and making containers for the rest, such as the aquarium.

After that, we discuss the two new additions to the group. The first, Michal, is a young man, age twelve, who was at the kid's camp helping someone who was injured to go outside. He evidently went back inside that kid's cabin to get something forgotten, which evidently connected to Annabeth's purse right as they made their jump, getting stuck inside. When they arrived, the pocket world was cut off from their home world, and he was trapped.

Felix on the other hand, was likewise trapped, but he didn't attend their camp. While clearly of some sort of supernatural nature, he isn't of the same type as the other kids. While as hyperactive as any other nine year old, he isn't ADHD, nor Dyslexic. He claims to be a magician, specifically an Egyptian magician. He said that he had been practicing placing things in something called the Duat, but made a mistake and ended up there. He had been waiting for Someone named Carter or Sadie to come rescue him when the world turned topsy turvy and after a while, headed for a glow on the horizon.

The kids bring up the idea that if these two were found there, then there might be other people there as well. They want to know if I know someone who could go there with them to help locate people and bring them out. Felix says he can help with that part, but freely admits he's a trainee. Rachel says she can help train Felix, and with his aid, help the others track down people. It's weird, but that other place might have every single thing place in a magical storage device from their world. Though Felix does warn us if we encounter a large box covered in Egyptian hieroglyphics and emitting snarls of rage from an unknown beast, we should leave it alone.

And that brings up another point; one I'd hoped would somehow miraculously solve itself, and one I really didn't want to deal with; the penguins. Evidently, some of them Felix had summoned and stored in the duat before he got trapped there, and they had grown in power with him, becoming enhanced penguins. Others, he'd summoned after the other place had settled, which I assume was right after the kids arrived in our world.

Felix is REALLY attached to his penguins. It'd be cute if the penguins weren't so annoying. Actually, I'll admit, it is kind of cute. I actually sort of want to let him keep them, but Percy was right, they're not confortable here and would very shortly die. It's Percy mentioning that he can talk to them, and that the ones he summoned from this world have families, including chicks that they need to get back and feed before they starve that finally convinces Felix to cave. Rachel works out a deal with Felix and Percy on how to help each other's magic work together to place each penguin either back where it should be, or amongst its own kind if it came from the other world. The magic would evidently include making them as well fed as they should be for wherever and whenever they go.

That bit of magic is actually kind of interesting to watch. Rachel acts like a conduit from Percy to Felix. He in turn seems to draw Egyptian hieroglyphs in midair until suddenly, they, and the penguins just disappear. I notice Annabeth and Nico watching Rachel with a slight frown; I get the feeling that they didn't know this about her powers.

That gets done just in time for the reporters to show up for my interview.


End file.
